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THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 



THE 

PILGRIMS OF IOWA 



BY 

TRUMAN O. DOUGLASS 



We cross the prairie as of old 
The Pilgrims crossed the sea, 

To make the West as they the East 
The homestead of the free" 




THE PILGRIM PRESS 

BOSTON CHICAGO 



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Copyright, 1911 

BT 

THE IOWA CONGREGATIONAL HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 



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THE RUMFORD PRESS 
CONCORD, N. H., TJ. S. A. 



'CLA305487 



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TO THE CONGREGATIONAL HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY, 

THE NOBLE "MOTHER OF US ALL"; 

AND TO THE IOWA CONGREGATIONAL HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY, 

THE FAIREST OF HER DAUGHTERS; 

TO THE MEMORY OF HEROIC PIONEERS, 

AND TO THE HONOR OF THEIR WORTHY SUCCESSORS; 

TO A PAST WHICH IS GLORIOUS, 

AND TO A FUTURE WHICH SHALL EXCEL IN GLORY, 

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED. 



PREFACE 

One of the closing paragraphs of the author's annual 
report for 1906, read at Dubuque, was as follows: 

Somebody ought to write a history of Congregational Iowa, and do it 
pretty soon. We have a few fragments, but no straightforward, connected 
history. The material is abundant; the record is grand, heroic, inspiring. 
And the time is passing. We are already asking questions which nobody 
can answer. 

As a sequence of this report and the occasion — the seven- 
tieth anniversary of home missions in Iowa — the following 
resolution was adopted: 

Resolved, That, reminded by this meeting of the kindly, beneficent 
influence of home missions during the past seventy years, and recognizing 
the value of the services rendered by the faithful workers on the field, and 
by those who have superintended the work, particularly that of our present 
Home Missionary secretary, to whose devoted and faithful service the 
progress of the work for the past twenty-four years is largely due, we 
render devout thanksgiving to God for what has been wrought, and hereby 
register our hearty appreciation of the value of home missions and look 
into the future with hope and good cheer. It was also voted, "that Secre- 
tary Douglass be invited to write a history of Congregationalism in Iowa." 

The task came to me undoubtedly because of my unique 
position in the Pilgrim ranks. I was the oldest man in our 
fellowship, not too old for the service, and, as superintendent 
of home missions in the state for a quarter of a century (not 
a century, as some have declared), I had had exceptional 
opportunities to know our ministers and churches and all 
our institutions and our whole history. 

Asa Turner began his work in Iowa in 1838 and closed it 



viii PREFACE 

in 1868. I began my work in 1868, only thirty years from the 
founding of our first church, and near enough to the beginning 
of things to know, or to know of, nearly all the men who had 
laid the foundations of our Christian institutions in those 
earlier years. 

Mr. Turner closed his work at Denmark in 1868, but he 
did not close his life until 1885; so that I was his contemporary 
here in Iowa for seventeen years. I knew personally all the 
other patriarchs, Gaylord, Reed, Holbrook and Emerson, 
though Gaylord and Holbrook had left the state before I 
came. Before 1868, Hutchinson and Spaulding of the Band 
had died, and Alden and Ripley had returned to New England. 
The other seven of the eleven were still associated with Iowa, 
although just then E. B. Turner was in Missouri; all these I 
knew well, and some of them intimately. With Ephraim 
Adams and Salter, I was in close association for more than 
forty years. (I protest, however, in spite of many statements 
to the contrary, that I was not a member of the Band!) Meet- 
ing Brother Adams for the first time at a joint session of the 
Mitchell and Garnavillo Associations, at McGregor in October 
of 1868, I said, "Well, I never will get acquainted with that 
man, so quiet, so stately and so sedate!" 

But I did get acquainted with him. He gave me the right 
hand of fellowship at my ordination, and he became to me the 
brother of all the brethren; and he came into my life as no 
other man in Iowa has done. He selected me for his successor 
at Decorah, but the church did not ratify the election! He 
did not choose me as his successor in the office of superintend- 
ent, but I am sure he was glad to have me there. Tears will 
come now as I think of the wounding of his dear, sensitive 
heart in that he was permitted to lead the forces only to the 
borders of the "Promised Land" of self-support. 

Many others of that elder generation, I knew — Fathers 
Windsor, Sands, Taylor, Tenney and Todd; Brothers Coleman, 
Helms, Littlefield, Upton, G. G. Rice, D. E. Jones, Cochran, 



PREFACE ix 

Chamberlain, Magoun, Bordwell, Alex. Parker, Sloan, Fawkes, 
Joseph Hurlburt, Joseph Pickett, Lyman Whiting, etc., — 
more than a hundred more. 

Of the hundreds that have occupied our pulpits since 1868, 
almost no one, unless he passed on at once, has escaped my 
knowledge. 

In my home missionary work, of course, I visited the 
churches. Lansing Ridge, Templeton, and Traynor I have 
never seen; I know not that I have missed any others of my 
diocese. 

As I sit in my study, musing of the past, a thousand earnest, 
glowing faces are looking into mine, and ten thousand hands 
are waved in token of recognition, and in kindly greetings. 

To write of these men and of these churches has been a 
comfort and a pleasure. For the past two years, I have been 
walking and talking much with those of the former genera- 
tions. Again and again as questions have arisen, I have said 
to myself: "Well, I'll ask Brother Adams, or Julius A. Reed 
about that." 

The date of my commission to write the book is May 17, 1906, 
and before these pages appear it will be beyond May, 1911. 

In May of 1906, one more year remained of the home 
missionary service; and then followed more than two years 
of strenuous campaigning for the National Society, and for 
Iowa College, and in the Joint Missionary Campaign. 

Such a book cannot be written in a hurry. History cannot 
be spun out of one's inner consciousness. It requires time to 
gather and sift the material, and to decide between conflicting 
dates and statements. According to "The Minutes" and "The 
Year Book," the same man may have several different names, 
and the same church two or three dates of organization or 
dedication; and, for a part of the information, hundreds of 
letters must be written and scores of documents consulted. 
I have tried to write with the accuracy of a historian but I 
have avoided scholastic forms and methods. References 



x PREFACE 

and footnotes have been purposely discarded as of no profit 
to the ordinary reader. For the most part the authorities 
have been named in the body of the book in connection with 
the quotations made. In further acknowledgment as to the 
sources of information, let this suffice: The records from 
which gleanings have been made are substantially "The 
Minutes," "The Year Book," The Iowa News Letter, "The An- 
nals of Iowa/' "Asa Turner and His Times," "The Life of 
Reuben Gaylord," "Todd's Settlement of Western Iowa," 
Doctor Salter's books, Doctor Holbrook's "Recollections of 
a Nonagenerian," sketches of men and of churches secured 
by correspondence, and, most of all, the files of The Home 
Missionary, and the unpublished writings of Julius A. Reed, 
these typewritten and bound, and in the custody of the 
College Library. 

To clerks and pastors of churches and others who have fur- 
nished information; to the experts who have listened patiently 
to the reading of the book, making corrections and suggestions; 
to those who have aided in its mechanical construction, and 
to all our helpers in the work, we give most hearty thanks; 
and not least of all they will deserve our thanks who will 
receive and "read and inwardly digest" this product of our 
hands, the Story of the Pilgrims of Iowa. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Antecedent Movements and Events 1 

II. The Prospectors (1833-1837) 13 

III. The Patriarchs (1838-1842) 28 

IV. The Iowa Band (1843-1844) 51 

V. "Other Men Labored" (1845-1849) 74 

VI. Reaching the Missouri (1850-1854) 97 

VII. Up in the North Country (1855-1860) 118 

VIII. In the War Time (1861-1865) 145 

IX. Along the Railroad Lines (1866-1869) 176 

X. Up in the Sioux Country (1870-1879) 197 

XL Maturity (1880-1889) 223 

XII. From Dan to Beersheba (1890-1899) 252 

XIII. Scattering Abroad (1900-1910) 273 

XIV. Through the Decades 291 

XV. "Twilight and Evening Bell" 313 

XVI. The Churches in a Nutshell 326 

XVII. Who's Who 363 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

OPPOSITE PAGE 

THE PATRIARCHS 28 \^ 

O. Emerson, J. A. Reed, Asa Turner, J. C. Holbrook, 
R. Gaylord. 

THE IOWA BAND 51 V 

Benjamin Spaulding, Erastus Ripley, James J. Hill, 
Ebenezer Alden, E. B. Turner, Grave of Horace Hutchin- 
son, Daniel Lane, Harvey Adams, A. B. Robbins, Ephraim 
Adams, William Salter. 

IOWANS IN A. M. A. WORK 86 * 

Dr. F. G. Woodworth, Miss Mary C. Collins, Dr. 
Henry S. DeForest, H. Paul Douglass, H. W. Porter. 

G. G. RICE 99 

John Todd, Edwin S. Hill. 

MEN OF THE SIOUX COUNTRY . 103 

J. D. Sands, J. J. Upton, J. O. Thrush. 

EARLIER SUPERINTENDENTS, AMERICAN HOME MIS- 
SIONARY SOCIETY 113 ' 

Jesse Guernsey, Joseph Pickett. 

THE LITTLE BROWN CHURCH AND REV. J. K. NUTTING 117 

Vignette, Nutting. 

PRESIDENTS OF IOWA COLLEGE 120 . 

G. F. Magoun, G. A. Gates, Dan F. Bradley, J. H. T. Main. 

MEN OF THE NORTH COUNTRY 126 • 

Chauncey Taylor, W. L. Coleman, A. S.Allen, J. D. Mason. 

PRESIDENTS OF TABOR COLLEGE 134 • 

R. C. Hughes, John Gordon, W. M. Brooks, Geo. N. Ellis, 
F. W. Long. 

OSAGE CHURCH BUILDINGS 141 ^ 

Osage Church (Upper Cut), Osage Church (Lower Cut), 
xiii 



xiv ILLUSTRATIONS 

OPPOSITE PAGE 

OSAGE PASTORS AND WIVES 157 " 

OFFICERS IOWA HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY ... 227 * 
T. O. Douglass, Clayton Welles, P. A. Johnson, J. E. 
Snowden, J. M. Sturtevant, A. L. Frisbie, G. H. Lewis, 
J. H. Merrill, Annie D. Merrill. 

SUPERINTENDENTS, CONGREGATIONAL SUNDAY SCHOOL 

AND PUBLISHING SOCIETY 231 

C. A. Towle, O. O. Smith, H. W. Tuttle. 

OFFICERS W.H.M.U. OF IOWA 1886-1911 ...... 233 U 

Miss Ella E. Marsh, Mrs. T. O. Douglass, Mrs. M. J. 
Nichoson, Mrs. H. H. Robbins, Mrs. E. M. Vittum, Miss 
Belle L. Bentley, Mrs. D. P. Breed, Mrs. H. K. Edson. 

REPRESENTATIVE CHURCH BUILDINGS 277 * 

Ames, Belmond, Grinnell, Atlantic, Des Moines. 

OFFICERS IOWA BRANCH W. B. M. 1. 1876-1911 .... 306 ^ 
Mrs. Sarah Candace Parker, Mrs. G. F. Magoun, Mrs. E. 
R. Potter, Mrs. Mary S. Kelsey, Mrs. A. L. Frisbie, Mrs. 
Clara Whipple Rew, Mrs. Ella Reinking Towle, Mrs. Nel- 
lie Clarke Parker, Mrs. J. F. Harden, Mrs. Julia D. 
Brainerd, Mrs. W. C. Wilcox, Miss Grace Potwin. 

REPRESENTATIVE HOME MISSIONARIES 317 

Francis Fawks, Anton Paulu, D. G. Youker, J. H. Hanson. 



THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Chapter I 
ANTECEDENT MOVEMENTS AND EVENTS 

The lineage of the Pilgrims of Iowa runs back through 
many generations. The forces uniting in Congregational 
Iowa are gathered from many quarters. 

Congregational Iowa is a part and product of the great 
historical movements called Christianity, the Reformation, 
and the Puritan Reform. 

In a special way it is a part and product of the great move- 
ment called Home Missions. 

The Pilgrims came to build the kingdom of God in the 
New Land. The people of the Massachusetts Bay Colony 
were more of a mixed mulititude, perhaps, and came with more 
of mixed motives, but they also came with pious intent to 
build the kingdom of God in the New Land. The chief agency 
of this service in their thought was the Church. How careful 
they were to have every part of their territory supplied with 
church and minister — the educated and godly minister! They 
founded Harvard College almost for the express purpose of 
raising up an educated and godly ministry for the churches 
of the New Land. They sometimes petitioned state legisla- 
tures for money to plant the church in the new community, 
and did not plead in vain; for again and again Massachusetts 
set aside money from the state to plant the church in the 
new community. 

Then, as time went on and there were many settlements 

this side of the Hudson, and the great march of migration to 

the West began, the New England churches began to send their 

missionaries to the regions beyond. They early formed their 

2 1 



2 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

societies, Connecticut in 1798 and Massachusetts in 1799, 
for the systematic performance of the work. Later, in 1826, 
when the western rush had become almost a torrent, our 
New England fathers united with other denominations in 
forming the great American Home Missionary Society with 
intent and purpose to cover the whole land with churches, 
however far remote the boundary lines of the country might 
run. 

The ordinance of 1787, creating the Northwest Territory 
out of two hundred and fifty thousand square miles bounded 
by the Ohio, the Mississippi and the Great Lakes of the North 
was a great Home Missionary movement. Manasseh Cutler, 
of Connecticut, a man of heroic mould, a patriotic and Chris- 
tian expansionist, an early prophet of America's great future, 
broke over into the new territory on a tour of exploration 
in 1786, and in 1788 led out a colony to lay the foundations 
of Marietta, town and church and college. A little later, 
"The Western Reserve" was opened up in a Christian way by 
David Bacon, Joseph Badger and Thomas Robbins, agents 
of the great Home Missionary movement sent out by the 
churches of Massachusetts and Connecticut. 

We were early on the ground in Indiana, and our men and 
money had much to do with the planting of churches and the 
founding of Wabash College; but for the most part, we live 
in Indiana in institutions which do not bear our name. Our 
first church, of home missionary origin, of course, was organ- 
ized in 1834. 

In Illinois, also, much of our early work is lost to the denom- 
inational name. A little preliminary missionary work was 
done as early as 1812. In 1816 the Connecticut Home Mis- 
sionary Society sent out a missionary, Salmon Giddings by 
name, to labor in Illinois and Missouri. Next after Giddings 
came J. M. Ellis of Kaskaskia and Jacksonville. He was 
one of the founders of Illinois College, and for years was an 
agent of the Home Missionary Society. To him came the 



ANTECEDENT MOVEMENTS AND EVENTS 3 

awful experience of returning from a missionary tour to find 
his whole family dead and buried, swept away by the dread 
disease of cholera. In 1829 came to Illinois the famous Eleven, 
Asa Turner, Albert Hale, Julian M. Sturtevant, Theron 
Baldwin, etc., from Yale Divinity School, to gather churches 
and to found a college. If any one wishes to know what these 
men did for Illinois and for the world, let him read Dr. Roy's 
"Half Century of Home Missions." 

Wisconsin's first church dates back to 1785. This was 
Indian church planted first in Stockbridge, Mass. In 1836 
Stephen Peet makes a beginning of the Christian conquest 
of the state at Green Bay. The next church is at Platteville, 
beginning in 1839, as a Presbyterian church, but learning soon 
the more excellent way. I know, for I was there, though too 
young to vote. My father and mother, staunch Presbyterians 
that they were, voted against the change. That is "the hole 
of the pit" from which I "was digged." In this same year, 
1836, this great movement reached and crossed the Mississippi 
at Dubuque, and began the building of another Christian 
commonwealth. In the chapters following will be found a 
part of the story of this great movement in the making of this 
great state. 

Congregational Iowa is part and product of another move- 
ment called or to be called, "The Congregational Renais- 
sance." We had the best start of any denomination in this 
country. A hundred and fifty years ago there was scarcely 
any other form of church life in New England but the Congre- 
gational. We ought to-day to be the largest denomination 
in America. Instead of that we are numerically, though not 
in weight and quality, one of the smaller denominations. 
Why are we so small? Because we are so good! "Be good 
and you will be lonesome!" There has been with us a great 
excess of undenominationalism. We have not cared enough 
for our own. We played the "game of give away" from the 
Hudson to the Mississippi. In the half century when the 



4 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Middle West was filling up most rapidly, we sent our ministers 
from Congregational New England by the hundreds; we sent 
our members by the tens of thousands; we sent our money 
almost by the millions, to build up the kingdom of God to be 
sure, but to build up the kingdom of God under some other 
name than Congregational. Here is a specific illustration 
of the excessive liberality of Congregationalism in the evan- 
gelism of the Middle West : — 

The Connecticut Home Missionary Society in 1816 sent 
out a young man, Salmon Giddings by name, from Andover 
Seminary. He located at St. Louis. His first church, of nine 
members, organized there at St. Louis in 1817, had in it five 
Congregationalists from New England, but it was a Presby- 
terian church, of course! His next church, organized at 
McCord's Settlement, Illinois, in 1818, was Presbyterian, too. 
In twelve years he organized fourteen churches, each one 
Presbyterian, and he gathered these fourteen churches into a 
Presbytery. A Congregationalist from New England, sup- 
ported by the Connecticut Home Missionary Society did that ! 
Why are we the little denomination that we are to-day? 
That is the reason. 

But this thing could not last forever. The light of God as 
contained in Congregationalism could not forever be hidden 
even under a New England bushel. There was bound to 
come a time, say about the time the waves of migration 
should mingle with the waters of the Mississippi, when men 
should stand up out here and say: "We believe that Congre- 
gationalism is as good for the West as it is good for New Eng- 
land, and we believe that now at length, after so long a time, 
it is right for us to begin to build churches after the faith and 
order of the Pilgrim Fathers.' ' And so, about the time we 
began to settle Iowa, there was this renaissance of Congre- 
gationalism; and Congregational Iowa, the first of all the states 
to feel the full force of this great movement, was a conspicuous 
part and product of it. 



ANTECEDENT MOVEMENTS AND EVENTS 5 

Great secular movements and events also had to do with 
the making of Iowa, but the mere mention of them must 
suffice. The discoveries of America; the great migrations, 
savage and civilized, of modern times, preceding "the star 
of empire" in its westward flight; the war of independence; 
the establishment of the national government; the adoption 
of the policy of territorial expansion; the ordinance of 1787; 
the Louisiana Purchase; the Black Hawk War etc., etc., are 
among the antecedent movements and events leading up to 
the Iowa of to-day. 

Of the last two events a word should be said. Iowa had 
numerous landlords before the Louisiana Purchase. By vir- 
tue of the discoveries of the Cabots (1497-1499) England 
claimed proprietorship over a vast undefined, unbounded 
region which included Iowa. By reason of the adventures 
of De Soto on the lower Mississippi, in 1541, Spanish maps 
had "Nova Hispania" written all over the "vague outline 
of North America. " Somewhat more substantial, a little 
more than a century later, are the claims of France by reason 
of the discoveries and exploits of Marquette and Joliet. 

They are the first of the "pale faces" to feast their eyes 
upon the bluffs, river, and prairies of Iowa. Coming down 
the Wisconsin River in birch canoes, says Marquette, "we 
entered the Mississippi with a joy I cannot express;" and they 
stood face to face with the bold and rugged bluffs, in the 
midst of which now nestles the "Pocket City," McGregor. 
It is a tradition and probably a fact that the reception given 
to Marquette and Joliet by a band of Illinois Indians in a 
village located on the banks of the Des Moines, a little above 
its mouth, suggested the closing scene of Longfellow's Hia- 
watha : 

"And the noble Hiawatha, 
With his hands aloft extended, 
Held aloft in sign of welcome, 

Cried aloud and spake in this wise: 



6 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

'Beautiful is the sun, O strangers, 

When you come so far to see us; 

All our town in peace awaits you, 

All our doors stand open to you : 

You shall enter all our wigwams, 

For the heart's right hand we give you.' 

"All the old men of the village, 
All the warriors of the nation, 

"Came to bid the strangers welcome; 
'It is well,' they said, 'O brothers, 
That you come so far to see us!' " 

April 9, 1682, La Salle unfurled the banner of France at the 
mouth of the Mississippi and took formal possession of all 
the country watered by it and its tributaries, in the name of 
Louis XIV., giving to this vast region the name of Louisiana. 
Under the protection of France, there is a show of occupancy 
on Iowa soil, — in the trading posts established by Nicholas 
Perrot, the first of Indian traders in this part of the country, 
at the mouth of the Wisconsin, probably in what is now 
Clayton County, and at "Perrot's Mines/' probably at Du- 
buque; and in other posts, established later, down the Mis- 
sissippi, and up the Missouri. 

Now, by a turn in the wheel of fortune, in 1763, by a secret 
agreement, in the " Treaty of Paris," Spain again had nominal 
possession, and for a little time, the Spanish flag floated over 
New Orleans, and the trading posts at McGregor and 
Dubuque; and land grants at McGregor, Dubuque, and Mon- 
trose, recognized in after years by the United States, were 
made in the name, and by the authority of Spain. 

But the days of Spain in the Louisiana Country were soon 
numbered, for the great Napoleon was in the field, changing 
the map of Europe and the world, and in 1800, France was 
again in full possession of Louisiana, on both sides of the river. 

The days of France, too, were few, out in this western world, 



ANTECEDENT MOVEMENTS AND EVENTS 7 

for of necessity Louisiana must be a part of the United States 
of America. In the " Louisiana Purchase " President Jefferson, 
Robert Livingston, and James Monroe were the chief actors. 
By this great transaction, the United States became the land- 
lord of this vast estate. When the treaty was signed, April 
30, 1803, " Livingston arose and shook hands with Monroe, 
and with Marbois, the French minister, and said: 'We have 
lived long, but this is the noblest work of our lives. This 
treaty will change vast solitudes into nourishing districts, and 
prepare ages of happiness for innumerable generations. The 
Mississippi and the Missouri will see them succeed one another, 
and multiply in the bosom of equality, under just laws, freed 
from error and superstition, and the scourges of bad govern- 
ment.'" 

The territorial names of early Iowa were as follows: — 
In 1804, this was made a part of the District of Louisiana; 
then, in 1805, it became a part of the Territory of Louisiana; 
then, 1807, it was in the Illinois Territory; then from 1812- 
1821, it was a part of the Missouri Territory; it became 
Michigan Territory in 1834, and Wisconsin Territory in 1836; 
Iowa Territory in 1838, and the State of Iowa in 1846. 

Governor Grimes, residing at Burlington, in an address 
in the United States Senate in 1866, said: "I have lived in 
three different territories, under three different territorial 
governments, although I have resided in the same town all 
the time." 

Up to the time of the Louisiana Purchase, the proprietor- 
ship of the Upper Louisiana Country was for the most part a 
fiction. The red-skinned Pilgrims of early Iowa held almost 
undisputed possession until the coming, in 1788, of Julien 
Dubuque to open the lead mines in the place which now bears 
his name, and which became his place of burial in 1810. 

When Uncle Sam came into possession he began at once to 
look over his property and to consider what he would do with 
it. Various exploring expeditions were sent out. The famous 



8 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Lewis and Clark expedition, hunting a passage to the Pacific 
Ocean by way of the Missouri and the Columbia, in July and 
August of 1804 passed along a portion of our western borders, 
naming " Council Bluffs," leaving at Sioux City a cedar-post 
marking the grave of one of their number, Sergeant Chas. 
Floyd, to whose memory now stands "a lofty obelisk, erected 
by the Floyd Memorial Association," May 13, 1901. 

Another expedition, under Zebulon M. Pike, in 1805, was 
sent up the Mississippi, with instructions to "note the rivers, 
islands, rapids, mines, Indian nations," etc., and "to examine 
strictly for an intermediate point between St. Louis and 
Prairie Du Chien, suitable for a military post." 

At the Rock River they called on Black Hawk. Twenty- 
eight years later he thus described the meeting: — 

"Lieutenant Pike gave us some presents, and said our 
American Father would treat us well. He presented to us an 
American flag, which we hoisted. He then requested us to 
lower the British colors, which we were waving in the air, 
and give him our British medals. This we declined to do, 
as we wanted to have two fathers. He went to the head of the 
Mississippi, and then returned to St. Louis. We did not see 
any American again for some time, being supplied with goods 
by British traders." 

In 1824, President Monroe, supposing that this part of the 
country would never be needed for white settlement, proposed 
to Congress that what is now Iowa should be a part of a great 
Indian Territory, into which the tribes of the whole country 
should be gathered. Of course, this was not to be. The 
tribes then in possession soon lost their lease upon the land 
which they then held. The Black Hawk War in 1832 was the 
beginning of the end of the Indians in Iowa. Black Hawk, 
born at the Sac village on Rock River, Illinois, in 1767, was 
never warmly attached to the Americans. He told Lieutenant 
Pike that they wanted "two fathers," but the father of his 
heart was the British father, and in all the squabbles of Ameri- 



ANTECEDENT MOVEMENTS AND EVENTS 9 

can and British traders, he took sides with the British. He 
was not pleased when Louisiana became a part of the United 
States. He was not pleased when, November 3, 1824, the 
five chiefs of the Sacs and Foxes ceded to the United States 
their lands east of the Mississippi. He aided Tecumseh 
against the United States in 1811, and became an ally of 
England in the War of 1812. 

In the spring of 1831, Black Hawk was informed that he 
must remove to the west side of the river. His address to 
his warriors is most eloquent and pathetic: 

But alas! what do I hear? The birds that have long gladdened these 
groves with their melody now sing a melancholy song! They say: "The 
Red man must leave his home, to make room for the white man." The 
Long Knives want it for their speculation and greed. They want to live 
in our houses, plant corn in our fields, and plough up our graves. They 
want to fatten their hogs on our dead, not yet mouldered in their graves. 
We are ordered to the west bank of the Mississippi; there to erect other 
houses, and open new fields, of which we shall soon be robbed again by 
these pale-faces. 

United States troops and Illinois militia assembled at Rock 
Island to compel the old warrior to move on. He was " sullen 
and spiteful." "Your father asks you to take a seat," said 
the interpreter. His reply was: "My father! The sun is 
my father; the earth is my mother: I will rest upon her 
bosom." Finally, through the efforts of Keokuk, Black 
Hawk was induced to "touch the goose-quill" and to affix 
his sign manual to the paper. "He arose slowly, and with 
dignity, took the pen, made a large, bold cross with force; 
then returning it politely, he resumed his seat." 

In his Iowa home Black Hawk was not content. He 
nursed his grief, and meditated revenge. He persuaded some 
of his young bloods to go with him on the warpath. "They 
crossed the Mississippi, April 6, 1832, to the dismay and con- 
sternation of the frontier settlements in Illinois"; and the 
Black Hawk war had begun. But it was soon ended. August 
2 f of the same year, Black Hawk was captured and held in 



10 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

captivity, first at Jefferson Barracks, and then at Fortress 
Monroe. 

As an indemnity for the expenses of the war, and as a buffer 
to the Illinois frontier, which had been invaded, a strip of 
land along the west bank of the river, about forty miles 
broad, and extending from McGregor on the north, to the 
Missouri line, and known as the Black Hawk Purchase, was 
ceded to the United States by the Sacs and Foxes, and opened 
the way for white settlement this side of the river. The 
council at which the transfer was made was held September 
21, 1832, on the ground where the city of Davenport now 
stands, General Winfield Scott representing the United States. 
At the conclusion of the treaty, General Scott " invested 
Keokuk with the rank and gold medal of head chief, and gave 
them all a grand dinner." And surely " there was a sound of 
revelry" that night as United States officers joined with the 
Indians in the war dance and other rude carousals suited to 
the savage taste. The date set for the Indians to vacate was 
June 1, 1833. Before leaving, Black Hawk was set at liberty, 
and he returned to his Iowa home. On the way home, Presi- 
dent Andrew Jackson had a conference with him and gave 
him some good advice, to which the good Indian made reply: 
"My father, my ears are open to your words. I am glad to 
hear them. I am glad to go back to my people. I want to 
see my family. I did not behave well last summer. I ought 
not to have taken up the tomahawk. My people have suffered 
a great deal. When I get back I will remember your words. 
I will not go to war again. I will live in peace. I shall hold 
you by the hand." 

At home a .great assembly of chiefs and braves gave him a 
welcome, solemn but royal. Keokuk made an address of 
welcome, the keynote of which was, "Let the past be buried 
deep in the earth." True to his word, Black Hawk never again 
was on the warpath. Iowa continued to be his home until 
the time of his death which occurred at Iowaville, on the 



ANTECEDENT MOVEMENTS AND EVENTS 11 

Des Moines, October 3 1838. He was reconciled to his white 
neighbors, and to the United States government, but he never 
was reconciled to the government of Keokuk by whom he was 
superseded. His last appearance in public was at a Fourth 
of July celebration at Ft. Madison, the year of his death. 
This was his parting address: — 

It has pleased the Great Spirit that I am here today. I have eaten with 
my white friends. The earth is our mother; we are now on it with the 
Great Spirit above us. A few winters ago I was fighting against you. I 
did wrong, perhaps, but that is past; it is buried; let it be forgotten. Rock 
River was a beautiful country. I liked my towns and my cornfields; I 
fought for it. I was once a great warrior; I am now poor; Keokuk has been 
the cause of my present situation. I am now old. I have looked upon 
the Mississippi River, I have been a child; I love the great river; I have 
dwelt upon its banks from the time I was an infant. I look upon it now. 

When our Pilgrims began to arrive, the Winnebagoes occu- 
pied Northeastern Iowa; the " Bloody Sioux" were in the 
Northwest portion of the territory; the Pottawattamies were 
down in the Southwest; while the Sacs and Foxes, and remnant 
bands of the Iowas occupied the great central plains and the 
Des Moines River country. 

Of these early proprietors of Iowa, all that remains is a 
little remnant of the Sacs and Foxes, — the Masquawkees (squaw 
men), about three hundred in number, located on the reserva- 
tion on the Iowa River near Tama City. This particular 
band has made but little progress in civilization. Very 
little has been done for them in the matter of education or 
religion. These former masters of the state have, however, 
left behind them some enduring monuments in the euphonious 
and brilliant names attaching to many of our counties, towns 
and rivers. Allamakee, Black Hawk, Decorah, Winneshiek, 
Wakon, Poweshiek, Keokuk, Wapello, Appanoose, Mahaska, 
Pottawattamie, Sioux, Wapsipinecon, Monona, Ottumwa, 
Maquoketa, Keosauqua, etc., are reminders of a vanished 
race, pushed aside to make way for the white man's civiliza- 
tion; pushed aside for the most part, as De Tocqueville, with 



12 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

a characteristic Frenchman's sense of destiny, says: "Tran- 
quilly, legally, philanthropically, without shedding blood, 
and without violating a single great principle of morality 
in the eyes of the world. It is impossible to destroy men 
with more respect for the laws of humanity." 



Chapter II 
THE PROSPECTORS, 1833-1837 

The greatest thing in the world, or in the universe, is a 
great personality. Supreme interest attaches to men, and not 
to things. The most significant part of history is biography. 
Great achievements betoken great leadership. At every step 
of progress, and in all the processes of the kingdom, you will 
find a man, or a super-man, a woman. Perforce, it must be 
written: " There was a man sent from God, whose name was 
John. The same came for a witness to bear witness to the 
light, that all men through him might believe." 

The story of Congregational life and work in Iowa, must of 
necessity deal largely with individuals. The first upon the 
scene, to use the phraseology of the mining camp, were the 
Prospectors, coming before the Patriarchs, and the Band, and 
those other great and heroic pioneers, by whose wisdom, 
devotion, toil and sacrifice, permanent foundations of our 
institutions were laid. 

The beginnings of the state were at Dubuque, and the 
beginnings of our missionary labors are here. In the autumn 
of 1832 the Black Hawk Purchase was ceded to the United 
States, but the actual opening of the tract to white settle- 
ment was June, 1833. There was no great rush to the new 
territory. The greatest crowd was at Dubuque, the lead 
mines here being the great attraction. To the people of that 
day, however, the crowd was immense. Doctor Holbrook, in 
a memorial address thirteen years later, said: " During the first 
few days of that month, June, 1833, several hundred whites, 
hitherto restrained by government troops, rushed across the 

13 



14 * THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

river, eager to seize upon the rich lead mines known to exist 
in this community; and so great was the tide of immigration, 
that in October of the same year, the population of the place 
was estimated at five hundred." 

In 1828, a slender youth appeared at the office of the Home 
Missionary Society, saying: " You may send me to the hardest 
place you've got." Undoubtedly, they struck it right; they 
sent him to Galena, Illinois. However, at this time, Galena 
was thought to be the coming metropolis of the West. This 
slender youth was Rev. Aratus Kent, a native of Connecticut, 
and a graduate of Yale College in 1816. 

In a communication from Galena, Fever River, Illinois, 
June 19th, 1829, Mr. Kent writes: "By the kind providence 
of God, I was kept in safety amid the dangers incident to the 
journey of two thousand miles, and after a quick passage of 
eighteen and one-half days, arrived at this place on the 18th 
of April, and felt that I had more than ordinary occasion for 
devout thanksgiving to the Preserver of men." 

The Galena missionary could not confine himself to one 
place. The great destitution all about constrained him to 
labor in all directions. We find him at Fort Prairie du Chien 
and down at Fort Rock Island, and over at Fort Dearborn. 
From Fort Dearborn he wrote in 1833, "If the pier now com- 
mencing should be a permanent one, and the harbor become a 
safe one, Chicago will undoubtedly grow as rapidly as any 
other western village." 

Dubuque could not fail to attract the Galena missionary. 
It was his sort of place, "the hardest you've got." In 1833, 
he wrote: 

I must spend some of my time across the Mississippi, for the opening 
of the country usually styled the "Dubuque's Mines" is drawing thither 
a great multitude of adventurers. It is important that they be followed 
in their wanderings with the voice of admonition, lest they forget the Lord 
and profane His Sabbaths. 

Julius A. Reed says Mr. Kent visited Dubuque in mis- 



THE PROSPECTORS, 1833-1837 15 

sionary service as early as 1831. "A more irreligious com- 
munity than this is described to have been," says Doctor Hol- 
brook, "can scarcely be conceived of. There was no recog- 
nition of the Sabbath, and no public worship, while vice of 
almost every kind was openly practised." 

From this same authority we have it that in this year, 1833, 
a gentleman of Dubuque, anxious to procure a Bible, searched 
the town in vain for one, and actually went to Galena on 
purpose to obtain it. Not having the means then to pay for 
it, Mr. Kent furnished him with one, for which he paid about 
two years later. 

But, by the next year, 1834, things were a little better. 
"Three or four families, Presbyterians and Methodists were 
added to the population, and a weekly prayer-meeting was 
established. A Methodist circuit preacher commenced hold- 
ing meetings once in four weeks, and Mr. Kent, of the Pres- 
byterian church in Galena also preached here occasionally. 
In the course of the season, a log building was erected, which 
served for holding religious services and other public meetings, 
and for a court-house, for several years." Just how much 
work Mr. Kent did on this side of the river is not evident. His 
hands were very full, and the river itself was a serious barrier. 
His reports in the Home Missionary indicate that he did what 
he could for the pioneer communities that were at all within 
his reach west of the river. In the September issue of the 
Home Missionary in 1836, he wrote: 

On the last Sabbath in June, I went to Belleview, a little village scarcely 
six months old, on the west bank of the Mississippi, twelve miles below 
Galena. The back country is settling rapidly by agriculturists. I had a 
large congregation, most of whom had been there but a few weeks. They 
were the first sermons ever heard in that place. I suggested a Sabbath 
school; three apparently efficient teachers volunteered. I proposed, if 
they would raise $5.00, I would furnish $10.00 worth of books; and they 
immediately collected $11.50 and paid it over, and I have forwarded a 
library. They urged me to come again. But there are six or eight places 
on this side, equally important, that I have not visited for many months. 



16 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

There are twenty places around me where a Sabbath school of twenty or 
twenty-five scholars might be secured, f one pious family would come and 
settle down in each neighborhood, and take hold of this work; but for want 
of them, these chidren are growing up ji ignorance. 

The few glimpses we have of Mr. Kent reveal the spirit of 
the man, his evangelistic zeal, and the wide-spread destitution 
of the great field in which he labored for forty years. 

Our second prospector was an Indian, John Metoxen by 
name, educated in the Moravian school at Bethlehem, Penn- 
sylvania, and now, in 1834, chief and preacher among the Stock- 
bridge Indians in the vicinity of Green Bay, Wisconsin. These 
Indians were a remnant of the tribe located at Stockbridge, 
Massachusetts, where a church had been organized, through 
the missionary labors of David Brainerd and Jonathan 
Edwards and others, in 1785. 

The white man's need and greed took no more account of a 
Christian Indian than of this savage neighbor, and the Stock- 
bridge people, too, were obliged to set their faces toward the 
setting sun. They started westward in 1818, stopped for a 
while in Indiana, and reached Wisconsin in 1822, preserving 
in all their wanderings their Christian faith and the ordinances 
of the Christian religion. Now in 1834 they were moved with 
concern and pity for their fellows recently moved to the west 
bank of the Mississippi. They sent a deputation, headed 
by their pastor John Metoxen, and Cutting Marsh their mis- 
sionary, to their Iowa brethren, to persuade them if possible, 
to give up their savage life, to receive the missionary and 
teacher, and to adopt the ways of civilization. They first 
visited Black Hawk in his lodge, a little above the mouth of 
the Iowa River. His reply was, " George Davenport told me 
not to have anything to do with the missionaries, for they 
would make the Indians worse." Whether he reported the 
trader correctly is more than doubtful. 

Missionary Marsh reported Keokuk's village located on the 
east bank of the Iowa River, about twelve miles from its 



THE PROSPECTORS, 1833-1837 17 

mouth, and containing about fifty lodges with four hun- 
dred people, as the chief village of the tribe. Keokuk 
was unwilling to listen to any of the suggestions of the 
deputation. He did not want to have anything to do with 
the white man's religion. At one time he wanted one of 
his sons to be educated as an interpreter, but later changed 
his mind. 

Wapello, located ten miles further up the river, had no use 
for schools or missionaries. 

Powesheik, on the Cedar, ten miles from its mouth, said he 
would like to have two or three of his young men educated for 
interpreters, but he did not want schools for he wanted to have 
his young men warriors. As to farming, he said they " could 
use the hoe but did not want the plow; they chose rather to 
hunt for a living than to cultivate the soil." "The Great 
Spirit," he said, "made us to fight and kill one another when 
we have a mind to. We do not want to learn; we want to 
kill the Sioux." 

The deputation also visited Appanoose, over on the Des 
Moines River, at his village, " Au-tum-way" (Ottumwa). He 
expressed a desire that something should be done for his 
people, his missionary emotions being strongest, however, 
when he was drunk, and gave so much encouragement that 
Mr. Marsh considered "this the most eligible place they found 
amongst the Sacs and Foxes for a missionary establishment. 
But they could not persuade the chief to take any practical 
steps toward the establishment of a mission, and the mis- 
sionary concludes his report with the statement: "The Sacs 
and Foxes are strongly attached to their superstitions ; I know 
of no Indians so much so, and they guard with jealous care 
against any change." 

Col. William Davenport of Ft. Armstrong, joined with 
the deputation in urging the Indians to welcome missionaries 
and teachers, but they were united and persisted in their un- 
willingness to do so; and so begins and ends the efforts of Con- 



18 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

gregationalism for the Christianization and civilization of the 
Indians of Iowa. 

Another fleeting evangelist of early Iowa, and prospector 
at Dubuque, was Cyrus L. Watson. He was of Scotch-Irish 
descent, born in York, South Carolina, February, 1800; 
education limited; a student of theology under Salmon Gid- 
dings of St. Louis; licensed to preach by the Missouri Presby- 
tery; ordained in 1829, and the same year commissioned by the 
American Home Missionary Society to labor at Rushville, 
Illinois. In 1834, he was at Dubuque on a missionary tour. 
In a communication, published in "The jEome Missionary," 
from this place he wrote : " It is about a year since the govern- 
ment gave permission to work these mines. The first cabin 
was built last June, and now it (undoubtedly he means the 
town, not the cabin!), contains a population of nearly four 
hundred. The tide of immigration is setting in with astonish- 
ing rapidity, bearing up on it a small portion of piety, and a 
large amount of vice." 

Mr. Watson's name is connected with one of the great events 
of our history, as he is the first of our missionaries stationed 
in this territory. His commission is dated December, 1835, 
and the place is designated: "Dubuq's Mines, Missouri 
Territory." Evidently the secretaries of the Home Missionary 
Society were not omniscient in those days, for this was then a 
part of Michigan Territory, organized by an act of Congress, 
June 28, 1834. We can imagine with what delight good 
Doctor Badger signed that first commission for labor west 
of the Mississippi River. Mr. Watson began his missionary 
pastorate January 1, 1836. 

His first report was published in the Home Missionary with 
these headlines: "The Far West, from Rev. Cyrus Watson, 
Dubuq's Upper Mississippi." He writes: 

I began my public labors among this people, on the first evening of the 
New Year, and have preached twice every alternate Sabbath since. The 
only place in the village, in which a congregation of considerable size can 



THE PROSPECTORS, 1833-1837 19 



be accommodated, is a log schoolhouse. This I occupy alternately with 
the stationed preacher of the Methodist denomination. I preach in some 
of the neighboring villages every Sabbath, when not employed here, and 
once a week preach an evening discourse at "The Diggings" in the vicinity. 
Our place of worship in the village is very uncomfortable, and the winter 
has been intensely cold. I find some here who know how to appreciate 
the ministrations of the gospel. My visits are cordially welcomed, and my 
public ministrations well received by the scattered sheep of all portions of 
Christ's flock, here and round about. Sectarian strife is unknown. This 
is just as it ought to be. 

Somewhat different in tone was the communication of a 
correspondent of the New York Journal of Commerce. 
Writing from here in 1836, he set Dubuque out in fine shape. 
He said: "The principal amusement of the people seems to 
be playing cards, Sunday and all. The law they carry in 
their pockets, and are ready to read a chapter on the slightest 
provocation." 

In May of this year, the Dubuque Visitor, in an editorial 
said: " Another minister is wanted here, one who can reason, 
preach, sing, and enforce the fourth commandment. " 

In this same year, Rev. Asa Turner, making a missionary 
tour this side of the river, headed this way but stopped at a 
point eight miles north of Davenport, and turned back. He 
said: "Dubuque we did not then call a civilized place. True, 
there were some half breeds and some whole breeds and a few 
miners, but it wasn't anything, anyhow." 

Eliphalet Price, an historian of Northeastern Iowa, gave 
Dubuque the honor of the first Iowa "hanging in a Christian- 
like manner"; of the first murder "rising to the dignity of 
public attention"; of the first elopement; and the first public 
horse-whipping of a man by a woman. He also claimed that 
here the first flag was raised, and the first house of worship 
built. 

Mr. Watson's term of service here was short. He organized 
no church. Doctor Magoun, in his book, "Asa Turner and 
His Times," quotes some unmentioned authority, as saying, 



20 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

"He moved the people to build a house of worship, and laid 
the foundation of the subsequent prosperity of the Presby- 
terian and Methodist churches." I doubt very much the 
absolute correctness of the statement, though this was known 
to be Mr. Watson's own opinion of the results of his work. 
Dr. Ephraim Adams in his address at our Home Missionary 
Semi-centennial, said: "This Mr. Watson, as is apparent, 
from the files of the Home Missionary, was a noble, fearless 
worker, but whether he ever did much in the region of 
Dubuque, as the result of this commission, is net so apparent." 

Doctor Holbrook, in an historical sermon, March 22, 1846, 
says: "In the winter of 1835-1836, Mr. Watson labored here 
about three months, preaching in the log meeting-house before 
referred to, alternately with the Methodist minister. At his 
instigation, an effort was commenced for building a Presby- 
terian house of worship. A considerable sum was raised, and 
the corner stone was laid on the 18th day of July, 1836. No 
church was formed, however, until May, 1839." At the laying 
of the corner stone laymen officiated, as there were no minis- 
ters in the town to conduct the services. 

Now the scene shifts to southeastern Iowa. The volume of 
immigration was rapidly increasing, the bulk of it now coming 
in to this section of the territory. In his "A Glimpse of Iowa" 
Mr. J. B. Newhall of Burlington says: "The writer of these 
pages, frequently having occasion to traverse the great thor- 
oughfares of Illinois and Indiana, in the years 1836-1837 the 
roads would be literally lined with the long blue wagons of the 
emigrants slowly wending their way over the broad prairies; 
often ten, twenty, and thirty wagons in company. Ask them, 
when and where you would, their destination, the answer 
was the ' Black Hawk Purchase.'" And this is his description 
of a family "camped for the night": 

The old lady had just built her .camp-fire, and was busily engaged in fry- 
ing prairie chickens, which the unerring rifle of her boy had brought to the 
ground. One of the girls was milking a brindle cow, and that tall girl yonder, 



THE PROSPECTORS, 1833-1837 21 

with swarthy arms and yellow sun-bonnet, is nailing the coffee-mill on the 
side of a scrub oak which the little boy had "blazed" out with his hatchet. 
There sits the old man on a log quietly shaving himself by a six-penny look- 
ing glass, which he has tacked to a neighboring tree. And yonder old 
decrepit man, sitting on the low rush bottomed chair is the aged grandsire 
of all; better that his bones be left by the wayside than that he be left be ind 
among strangers. These are scenes we frequently witness in the "far west. " 
This is "emigrating." 'Tis not going away from home; the home was there, 
that night, with the settlers on "Camp Creek," under the broad canopy of 
heaven by the gurgling brook, where the cattle browsed, the dogs barked, 
and the children quietly slumbered. 

Julius A. Reed was, in a way, one of the earliest of the 
prospectors, for as early as May of 1833, he had a prophetic 
glimpse of the promised land, his point of observation Nauvoo, 
then called Commerce, Illinois. His record of the event was 
as follows: "The town site, so far as it was not covered by a 
cornfield, was in a state of nature. I recollect only one house. 
Across the river was Iowa, then a part of Wisconsin. I could 
see the prairie where Montrose now stands, and the bluff 
beyond, with a tall tree here and there upon its brow. The 
view was beautiful, but, I reflected that the vast region be- 
tween me and the Pacific Ocean was inhabited only by sav- 
ages. All beyond the river seemed buried in profound sleep." 

Other early prospectors were Asa Turner and W. M. Kirby, 
both of the famous Yale Band of Illinois. Mr. Turner must 
have had glimpses of Iowa as early as 1831, on his trip to 
Galena. In April of 1836, they were out on a missionary tour 
in the Black Hawk Purchase. They crossed the river at Ft. 
Madison, and here Mr. Turner preached the "first Congre- 
gational sermon ever preached in Iowa." That is, it would 
have been a Congregational sermon, only that the preacher 
was still a Presbyterian. He did not unite with the Associa- 
tion until later in the year. Before this time, however, he 
had decided to make the change. 

Their next point was Farmington. Julius A. Reed sum- 
marized the trip as follows: 



22 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

They went to Farmington by way of West Point. There was at that 
time, scarcely any travel from the Mississippi across the country to the 
Des Moines. Two years later, the settlers could tell you that a certain 
dim track was the territorial road to Farmington, but could tell you noth- 
ing about it beyond their own neighborhood. Of course, they lost their 
way, and at nightfall found themselves with no settlement in sight and the 
road plunging into a wide prairie, where, even ten years later, there was no 
house for ten miles. Providentially they saw a single wagon track turning 
into the grass in the direction of a point of timber. This track they followed 
while they could see it, and afterward pushed their way at a gallop in the 
same direction. Some animal sprang up almost beneath their horses' 
feet; they hoped it was a calf, probably it was a wolf, but soon they heard 
the barking of a dog which led them to the camp of a Mr. Green, who was 
living with his family in his wagon and an open shed, while preparing a 
better shelter. This was at the end of the timber back of Bonaparte. 
The corn of which their bread was made was on the cob at their arrival. 
After preaching at Farmington, they passed on their way to Burlington, 
a mile and a half east of Denmark, past Mr. Conard's residence, where the 
roads from Denmark to Ft. Madison and from Burlington to West Point 
crossed each other. Mr. Turner may have admired the clump of hickories 
which stood there, but that naked, uninhabitable prairie was forgotten as 
soon as it was passed; but with what an earnest gaze would he have scanned 
it, had he foreknown that he was there to do his life's work, and love it 
better than any other place on earth. 

These brethren preached at Burlington and Yellow Springs, and passed 
through Bloomington, now Muscatine, and Davenport up to J. B. Chamber- 
lain's on the bank of the Mississippi, eight miles above Davenport at the 
mouth of Crow Creek, where Mr. Turner preached the second Protestant 
sermon preached in Scott county. 

"Muscatine," says Mr. Turner, "was disfigured by one log 
cabin." "All the West lay spread out just as the Lord had 
made it in all its primitive beauty." 

Of the Davenport of that day, this is his picture : 

In the center of what is now the town was a cornfield. A cabin had 
grown up to the eaves, but was minus roof and gable ends. Le Claire's 
Cottage stood where his house does now. Some two thousand Indians 
were encamped on the ground to receive their pensions from Rock Island. 
As we came from the south into the town, we met a number of young war- 
riors trying the speed of their Iowa Morgans. But our rushes and cotton- 
wood bark during the winter had not put energy enough into their muscles 
to make their speed dangerous. 



THE PROSPECTORS, 1833-1837 23 

Returning from the tour Mr. Turner made report: 

As to the country, I see but one objection. It is so beautiful that there 
might be an unwillingness to exchange it for the paradise above. The soil 
is simple to the Military Tract (in Illinois) — as a whole better. Prairies 
generally dry and rolling, streams clear ; of course more healthy than they 
generally are in this state, better supplied with timber, water power, coal, 
etc. Several places are as densely settled as Morgan County. The settlers 
generally are of much better character than usually falls to the lot of a new 
country. For enterprise, intelligence, and industry, they far surpass those 
who first settled Illinois. I was surprised to find so many comforts, so 
good cabins, so large fields, the growth of two years; fields of corn from fifty 
to one hundred acres, well fenced. 

This same year, 1836, the Haystack settlement had its be- 
ginning. But every beginning has a still earlier date. The 
real beginning of Denmark was a lecture delivered by Asa 
Turner in New Ipswich, New Hampshire, in 1832, on the ad- 
vantages offered to farmers by the prairies of Illinois, and the 
importance of their being settled by intelligent and Christian 
people! William Brown and Lewis Epps were deeply in- 
terested, and, at length resolved to try their fortunes in the 
West. 

They with Timothy Fox and Curtis Shedd, with their fami- 
lies, made a short stop at Quincy, but, later in the year they 
were out in the Black Hawk Purchase. For $200.00 they se- 
cured a squatter's claim, "sufficient for four farms, and a good 
deal to spare, with a small field fenced and a log cabin." This 
cabin was 16 x 18, with two half windows, a puncheon floor, 
a clay hearth and a sod chimney, said to have been built top 
downward, as that was the end which discharged a good por- 
tion of the smoke. In this one cabin were four families, num- 
bering eighteen persons. Even here the latch-string was always 
out to neighbors and to strangers. 

These were not the first in the neighborhood. Timothy 
Fox had a brother who was building a mill at Augusta on the 
Skunk river. This was one of the circumstances leading these 
families to this region. John 0. Smith, of North Carolina, 



24 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

taking up a claim in April 1835, was the earliest inhabitant at 
Denmark. He was "sorry when he heard that the Yankees 
were coming." The Boston Recorder in 1867, speaking of the 
feeling of a certain portion of the Western people toward New 
Englanders says: 

Western men and society strictly speaking, was largely of Southern origin. 
They are full of prejudice against Yankees. By such elements were the 
people of Denmark surrounded. They called Denmark in derision, a 
"Yankee Heaven." Their neat, painted houses with charming shaded 
yards in front, and surrounded by neatly trimmed hedges, their church and 
academy, and all the New England ways and works, excited envy and even 
alarm. As a veritable illustration of this fact, on the advent of the Yankees, 
a man of Southern origin, who had "squatted" near by, became greatly 
disturbed, and declared he would sell out and leave or he would be cheated 
out of everything. While in this frame of mind, he chanced to call upon 
one of his new neighbors at their tea hour. He was treated kindly and 
asked to the table. For the first time in his life he now saw a candle and 
a mince pie. On his return to his rail-pen home, he declared to his aston- 
ished spouse that he "would be consarned if he would not have some of 
them Yankee fixings." He did not sell out, and when soon afterwards, 
he was burned out, and the Yankees put him up a new house, he concluded 
it was safe to stay among them. 

All the first families of the Denmark colony were pious 
people. In their cabin homes from the very first, they erected 
altars to the Lord, and gathered every Sabbath for public 
worship. When they arrived there was not a Congregational 
or Presbyterian minister in Iowa, nor, save missionaries of 
the American Board among the Indians in Minnesota and 
Oregon, was there one west of the Mississippi. The popula- 
tion of the territory was about ten thousand five hundred. 
Dubuque had one thousand inhabitants; Davenport had no 
existence; Keokuk was a hamlet of a few whites and half- 
breeds. There was not a public bridge with a ten-foot span 
in all the land. The first to minister to the Denmark people, 
with any degree of regularity, was Rev. William Apthorp, 
born at Quincy, Massachusetts, graduate of Yale, a divinity 
student at Andover and Princeton, and commissioned by the 



THE PROSPECTORS, 1833-1837 25 

Home Missionary Society in July 1836. Fort Madison was a 
part of his field, although for a time he resided at Franklin 
(now La Harpe), Illinois. Later in the year, he located near 
Fort Madison. In 1837 and a part of 1838, he preached a 
part of the time at the "Big Haystack" as Denmark was then 
called. He was the first resident Congregational minister in 
Iowa. In 1838 he became a teacher in the mission Institute 
at Quincy. Later he returned to Iowa. 

For the readers of to-day we copy from Doctor Magoun's 
book a graphic picture of the Denmark of 1837, by a girl of 
that place. 

As we drew near Burlington, in front of a little hut on the river bank, 
sat a girl and a lad — most pitiable looking objects, uncared for, hollow- 
eyed, sallow-faced. They had crawled out into the warm sun with chatter- 
ing teeth to see the boat pass. To mother's inquiries, the captain said: 
"If you've never seen that kind of sickness I reckon you must be a Yankee; 
that's the ague. I'm feared you'll see plenty of it if you stay long in these 
parts. They call it here the swamp devil, and it will take the roses out of 
the cheeks of those plump little ones of yours mighty quick. Cure it? No, 
madam. No cure for it; have to wear it out. I had it a year when I first 
went on the river." 

This decided them not to locate near the river. 

We stopped in a cabin while father "prospected." He heard of a Yankee 
settlement on a prairie back from the river. Hastening to it, he found 
two small cabins — two families living in one (Messrs. Epps' and Shedd's) 
and Mr. Fox's in the other. Also, a mile to the west, in a little mite of a 
house lived a Mr. Brown. They divided with us their claim, and helped 
get the logs for our house. The fortnight it was being built, we lived in a 
cabin near Moffatt's Mill by the river; father, our brother of sixteen, and a 
young man who came with us were made welcome in the cabin of Messrs. 
Epps, Shedd, Hill and Houston. That they were all in the body we know, 
but how they all lived there I cannot tell, only that those little pioneer 
cabins had extensive possibilities, as also did the heads and hearts of their 
occupants. Every night mother suffered from fear of being scalped by the 
Indians, not knowing where they were prowling about. But she didn't 
let us know it at that time. Wolves we sometimes saw in daytime, and 
often heard them sniffing around the door at night, and setting up blood- 
curdling howls. Father had a massive (sea) chest; it took the united 



26 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

strength of our family to drag it before the door at night, and pile the 
others on top. Then we felt secure from Indians and wolves. 

It somewhat dampened our ardor when we saw our mite of a cabin 
standing on the bare prairie alone, and to our eager inquiries where the 
bed and table and this and that could be put, mother's cheerful answer 
would be, " Oh, we will find a place, or make one." 

Yet I overheard her tell Mrs. Shedd that when she came to that dark 
speck of a cabin on the prairie, with such desolate dreariness all around, it 
looked so unlike home, it seemed as if all she had given up rushed through 
her mind with crushing force. 

"Being scalped by the Indians" was a common horrid dream 
of early Denmark. The Sacs and Foxes quitted the Ceded 
district with a good degree of promptness, but their villages 
and lodges were just beyond the borders. To the early settlers 
the Indian was a very familiar object, and they were always 
conscious that the former possessors of the soil were not far 
away. One of the daughters of the Denmark parsonage 
writes: "In those days, we constantly exercised an anxious 
vigilance towards the west for the Indians. They had made 
a treaty, but we knew of their treacherous atrocities. Large 
companies of them often passed to Burlington from their 
camping ground a little west of us, and would stop for some- 
thing to eat, asking first for doughnuts and cow's grease 
(butter). 

"Mrs. Epps first gave Black Hawk and a few of his braves 
some doughnuts; they learned the word and always asked for 
them. They were always hungry, and at first, though their 
capacious stomachs seemed limitless, and everything cooked 
in the house quickly disappeared, mother didn't dare refuse 
them. It will not take a very extravagant stretch of imagi- 
nation now to hear their stealthy steps coming through the 
porch into our house, especially on their return from Burling- 
ton after being supplied with fire-water." 

In 1833, Julius A. Reed had a glimpse of Iowa. In January 
of 1837 he was on this side of the river prospecting for the 
Kingdom, and preparing himself for a larger ministry here 
later on. His account was as follows : 



THE PROSPECTORS, 1833-1837 27 

I crossed the river on the ice from Warsaw to Keokuk, and preached the 
first sermon ever preached in the place by a Congregational minister, and 
I think by any minister. I preached in a building afterwards known as the 
Rat Row. At that time there were scarcely more than a half dozen build- 
ings in the place, of which the Rat Row was the best. The inhabitants 
were chiefly river men, and were rough. Some of my friends thought it 
hazardous for me to attempt to preach there, but I could not ask for better 
treatment than I received. I recollect a man who was prostrated by rheu- 
matism and was not expected to live. He had kept an account of the liquor 
he had drunk, and said it amounted to twenty-seven barrels. The few 
houses in the place were scattered along the river, and brush covered the 
sides of the bluff nearly to the water. I saw an Indian hunting within 
forty rods of the landing. 

Later this same year Mr. Reed is this side of the river again. 
Of this he said: 

My first visit to Denmark was in November, 1837. I was already in my 
saddle when I heard that Love joy had been murdered at Alton. It meant 
something in those days to be an anti-slavery man in a free state. I found 
at Denmark Messrs. Epps and Shedd occupying a cabin jointly. Deacon 
Fox had built two cabins on his farm, one of which was occupied by William 
Brown, with whom I spent the night. The chimney smoked intolerably, 
and Mrs. Brown was shedding tears; whether it was because of home- 
sickness or the smoke I did not know, but I knew it was not homesick- 
ness that made me weep with her. The improvements at that time were 
a few very ordinary log cabins, each with a field of a few acres, enclosed 
with a worm fence. Comforts and conveniences were all in the future. 
Soon after, Deacon Fox, in behalf of these people, requested me to ar- 
range with Mr. Turner to organize a church at Denmark. 

The story of the organization belongs to another chapter. 



Chapter III 
THE PATRIARCHS, 1838-1842 

Those named as prospectors, who, up to this time, had 
simply touched the territory and its embryonic institutions, 
are Aratus Kent, Cyrus L. Watson, Julius A. Reed, Asa Turner, 
William Kirby, and William Apthorp. Two of these are now 
to be classed among the Patriarchs who came to stay, and who 
above all others, helped to lay permanently and well the 
foundations of our institutions. 

The first of the Patriarchs, in time and in effectiveness, is 
Asa Turner. Of his ancestry, his birth at Templeton, Massa- 
chusetts, the incidents of his childhood, his Unitarian associa- 
tions, his struggles with doubt, his conversion, his experiences 
as a district school teacher, as a student at Yale College and 
Divinity School, — from the last named of which he graduated 
in 1829, — of his courtship, and marriage and call to the West, 
etc., etc., there is no occasion to speak at length in this narra- 
tion, for they may all be found in detail in "Asa Turner and 
his Times," by Dr. G. F. Magoun. 

No reader of this book needs to be informed that Mr. 
Turner was one of the famous Yale Band of Illinois. "One 
event," says Mr. Turner in his autobiography, "occurred 
that decided my future life. A band of students was formed 
for the purpose of going to Illinois and planting the institu- 
tions of learning and the gospel. I was invited to join them. 
I did so. J. M. Ellis, who had been sent by the American 
Home Missionary Society, was trying to plant an institution 
in Jacksonville. Correspondence with him led us to unite 
our efforts with his. The result was Illinois College. This 

28 



0. EMERSON 



J. A. REED 















"f- 





ASA TURNER 
J. C. HOLBROOK R. GAYLORD 

THE PATRIARCHS 



THE PATRIARCHS, 1838-1842 29 

shaped the whole course of my life after. The last year in the 
Seminary was taken up in this effort, and especially in raising 
means to plant the college." 

There was a little interim between graduation and starting 
West. Mr. Turner explains: "In the spring of 1830, through 
the invitation of George Beecher, I went to Boston to study 
with his father, and there likewise occurred an event which 
has affected my whole life. I found one who was willing to 
cast in her lot with me in going to the ' unknown land,' for 
indeed it was less known than India at that time. She was in 
Boston teaching. I hardly knew why I went there ; but results 
revealed why. Her name was Martha Bull." 

Mr. Turner was a prompt young man. He went to Boston 
in the spring of 1830; the wedding occurred August 31st of 
the same year. September 6, he was ordained at New Haven; 
September 14, they started West, nine days less than two 
months being consumed in the journey, and arrived at 
Quincy, November 5. At his first service, he said: " Fourteen 
condescended to be my hearers." December 1, a church was 
organized with fourteen charter members, Presbyterian, of 
course. The grant from the Home Missionary Society for 
the first year was four hundred dollars, and half of this was 
spent in paying debts back East, and freight on household 
goods. 

Of course, Mr. Turner did not confine his labors to Quincy. 
Opportunities and destitutions on every hand called him out 
to missionary labors in many fields. "My field of labor," he 
said, "is as boundless as the eye can see — a territory greater 
than that promised to Abraham, more abundant in its pro- 
ductions, and, I fear, almost as destitute of the knowledge of 
the true God." One year he was out of his own pulpit twenty 
Sundays preaching at protracted meetings and in places 
destitute of religious services. "Our church," he said, "are 
willing that I should go when I deem it my duty, and I think 
the Lord blesses them more on this account." Twice at least, 



30 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

his missionary tours led him as far North as Galena, and once, 
as we have seen, in 1836, he made a prospecting missionary 
tour in Iowa. Ever after this, his eyes and heart were turned 
this way. 

Eighteen hundred and thirty-eight is a memorable year in our 
history. Two great events were the organization of the Den- 
mark Church, and the coming of Mr. Turner to Iowa. Early in 
the spring of this year Mr. Apthorp wrote from Fort Madison: 

A church is to be organized as soon as ministerial help can be obtained. 
The ministers who were appointed to organize the churches in this terri- 
tory did not come on account of death in the family of one of them. At 
Denmark, a church is to be organized, with the leave of Providence, the 
last Sabbath in May, with the help of Brother Turner from Quincy. This 
would have been done in the fall, but for Mr. Turner's being prevented 
from coming at the appointed time. They have always had a Bible class 
among themselves, and this spring a Sabbath school for the younger por- 
tion will be commenced. They have raised a frame for a meeting and 
school-house, but will not have it covered till some time this spring. The 
country on this side of the river is rapidly filling up. There are many towns 
growing up within a small circuit. Burlington, twenty miles up the river, 
the seat of territorial government, is an important place. 

As intimated in the above quotation, the Denmark people 
were ready for the organization of their church in the fall of 
1837, and had invited Mr. Turner and Julius A. Reed, to assist 
in the organization, but one thing and another prevented these 
brethren from making the journey until it became so late that 
they feared to put the Mississippi between them and their 
homes, the ice becoming too thick for a ferry, and too thin for 
a bridge. In this condition, people were often detained for 
days both in the fall and in the spring, the seasons of the freez- 
ing and the thawing of the river. Early in May of 1838, the 
brethren were ready for the service. 

"By invitation from the people," says Mr. Reed, " Brother 
Turner and myself visited Denmark for the purpose of organ- 
izing a church, reaching the place May 1, 1838. We spent a 
night on our way at Fort Madison, where the first Presby- 



THE PATRIARCHS, 1838-1842 31 

terian church in the state was organized on the 26th of March 
preceding, by Rev. R. K. McCoy, of Clayton, Illinois. Brother 
Turner preached from a text which occurred to him that day 
while we were crossing a large prairie." 

Father Turner's account of the organization is as follows : 

Such as wished to enter into a covenant with each other and with God 
as a church of Christ, related their Christian experience, the ground of 
their hope, and their motives in wishing to constitute themselves a branch 
of Christ's visible Church. The examination was regarded as satisfactory. 
Accordingly, May 5, 1838, thirty-two individuals assented to the Articles 
of Faith, and covenanted with one another to serve the Lord. The day 
was pleasant, and the occasion one of great interest to the little immigrant 
band. They were the first to unfurl that banner on the west side of the 
Mississippi which more than two hundred years before their fathers un- 
furled over the Plymouth Rock; the first to profess those doctrines and 
embrace that church polity beyond the "Fath:r of Waters," which has 
blessed New England from generation to generation. The infant church 
stood alone on the outskirts of civilization, farther west than any other 
that bore the family name, cherishing the hope that their doctrines and 
polity might roll west with the wave of emigration. 

The shanty sanctuary in which the organization took place, 
was 20 x 24. Two days before the organization it had neither 
door, window, nor floor, but was covered with oak shakes and 
lap shingles smoothed only with a drawing knife. A visitor 
said the material " looked as if it had been taken from the 
stump within twenty-four hours." The interior finish was 
all in hard wood, antique perhaps, rustic certainly. The 
floor was loose boards. The pews were slabs without any 
backs. The day before the organization, the building had 
received a door and windows, but there was no lath or desk. 
The pulpit built later is thus described: "The desk, which was 
made of common boards, required perhaps two hours' work 
for its construction, and was never worth painting. The top 
was a board six inches wide, supported in front by two other 
upright ones of cottonwood, and at the ends by two narrow 
ones of black walnut. It was for several years the only pulpit 
in Iowa owned by a Congregational church. The house cor- 



32 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

responded with the desk. But rude as this house was, God 
honored it with his presence, and was there found by many 
who had been led by the word there preached to seek him." 

The church was organized; now for a pastor. The Quincy 
minister was their coveted prize. So strong was their appeal, 
so great was his interest in the new territory, that he accepted, 
and in August of this year began the first Congregational 
pastorate of Iowa, which continued for thirty years. 

Denmark then, according to Father Turner, consisted of 
" three houses and a school-house. The house in which we 
spent the first night was called 'Copenhagen,' the capital of 
Denmark. It was built of logs, and consisted of two rooms 
and a sort of shanty addition for a bedroom. It was occupied 
by two families.' ' 

Reed's description of the Denmark of 1838 is as follows: 

Fifty years have passed since that day, but I can see the Denmark of 
that day as though it were yesterday. To bring it back you must sweep 
away these churches, school-houses, and dwellings, and all traces of these 
groves, orchards, hedges, fences, everything that the hand of man has 
touched. You must make these fields again one wild prairie, covered with 
wild grass, "hazel roughs," and oak grubs, a single hickory where Mr. 
Turner built his house, and a small clump of them where Hartwell Taylor 
lived. Coming up the prairie from the east, you would see occasionally 
a lone cabin standing out in the sun with little or no improvements about 
it. Then came the meeting-house, unfinished as you could see at a glance, 
standing by itself quite out in the prairie, and the view to the south and 
west was as wild as when it was the Indian hunting ground. 

Mr. Turner's salary for the first year was $300.00. In July 
of 1840, he began to act as Agent of the Home Missionary 
Society, and $200.00 was added to his salary, but, for at least 
ten years, it never exceeded $500.00, and for the most part 
was much less than that amount. The actual amount raised by 
the church for ten years was less than $300.00 per year. 

"That he was economical in his household," says Mr. Reed, 
"you can easily believe. I have seen his children more than 
once making their suppers solely of stewed pumpkin and 



THE PATRIARCHS, 1838-1842 33 

milk. I have heard that his family and his horse have been 
supplied from the same barrel." At one time he rode for 
nearly half a day to borrow money so as to take his letters 
from the post-office. Postage on Eastern letters was then 
twenty-five cents. 

The people of the Denmark parsonage shared with others 
the privations and anxieties incident to pioneer life. In the 
fall of 1839, occurred the first land sale at Burlington. Up to 
that time, the people held their homes only as " squatters." 
Speculators and "land grabbers" stood ready to bid in their 
homes from under them. It was a time of great anxiety. Mr. 
Turner went East to secure the money to purchase his claim. 
Coming back, the Ohio River was low, and he was delayed. 
"Will father get back in time?" was the all-absorbing question 
in the pastor's home. Neighbors assured Mrs. Turner that 
the parsonage claims would be protected, but still she was 
very anxious. Mr. Epps and Mr. Fox secured the land, and 
in a few days Mr. Turner arrived with the money to the great 
joy and relief of all. He worked his way down the Ohio to 
save expenses. 

About a year after the organization of the Denmark Church, 
Mr. Turner wrote : 

Around and on this prairie, within a distance of six or seven miles, I 
found about thirty sheep without a shepherd. These I have gathered into 
a church. Some have left and others have come; we now number about 
sixty. God in his goodness has visited us, and converted a goodly number 
considering our congregation. Eight have already united with us by 
profession. Of those who are hopefully converted, six are heads of fami- 
nes. Two young men of promise have already left us to prepare for the 
ministry. One is a son of a deacon of a church in Connecticut. He 
thinks it a wonderful providence that he must come out to Black Hawk to 
know what he must do to be saved. 

A third event of great importance in 1838 was the organiza- 
tion of the Burlington Church. Burlington was then one of 
the most important places in Iowa. Early in the year, an 
Old School Presbyterian church had been organized, but it 



34 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

died almost as soon as born. In its place, November 25, a 
New School Presbyterian church was organized. Rev. James 
S. Clark, of Connecticut, a graduate of Yale University, and 
a divinity student at Yale and Princeton, had succeeded Mr. 
Apthorp at Ft. Madison in the early part of this year. In a 
communication to the Home Missionary, he says: " Since 
my last, by the earnest request of some individuals, I have 
formed a church at Burlington. It consisted, at first, of twelve 
members. Three intelligent men were ordained elders. I 
find a number more who will join at the first opportunity. 
This is an important place, and they are disposed to give a 
good support to a minister." This was the Presbyterian begin- 
ning of our noble church at Burlington. 

The fourth great event of the year was the advent of the 
second of the patriarchs, Reuben Gaylord. He was born of 
humble, godly parents, of the Huguenot stock, at Norfolk, 
Connecticut, April 28, 1812. In 1830 he entered Yale Uni- 
versity. His father carried him down to New Haven in the 
one-horse wagon, two days being required for the journey. 
As he was passing to his examination, his father said, "Very- 
likely, I shall have to carry you home with me for you have 
not half studied." A little later, the son retorted, "Father, 
you will have to go home alone, for I am not going with you." 

Graduating in 1834, Gaylord had a call at once to Illinois 
College, at Jacksonville, and was tutor here for two and one- 
half years. Here he began his theological studies, under 
Dr. Edward Beecher, the president of the institution, but 
went back to Yale Divinity School, in 1837, and graduated 
the following year. He, with six others, undertook to or- 
ganize a Yale Band for Iowa. March 1st, 1838, he writes to 
the secretaries of the American Home Missionary Society: 

A few young men, members of this Seminary have become deeply in- 
terested in that section of our country lying west of the Mississippi, com- 
monly known as "Iowa District" or "Black Hawk Purchase." Seeing 
their destitute condition, forlorn as respects educational and religious 



THE PATRIARCHS, 1838-1842 35 

institutions, and learning that the district is rilling up with a rapidity- 
unparalleled in the history of the country, we feel a strong conviction 
that if the way can be opened, it is our duty to plant our feet west of the 
"Father of Waters." We wish to concentrate our influence and bring 
it to bear upon the future state of Iowa, while yet in its infancy. Our 
object will be twofold, to preach the gospel and to open a school at the 
outset which can soon be elevated to the rank of a college. Knowing 
that such an enterprise can not be accomplished by ind.vidual effort, the 
following brethren are ready to associate and pledge themselves in the 
work if the way can be opened so as to warrant the undertaking. 

The Band did not go forward in the enterprise, but Gaylord 
went alone. July 4th, he wrote again: "I wish now to 
present to your board, my application for a commission to labor 
in the work of the gospel ministry in the Territory of Iowa. I 
wrote you four months since in behalf of our Iowa Association, 
and your reply, so full of encouragement, was most gratefully 
received." 

Under date of July 27, he writes to Miss Sarah Burton, of 
Round Prairie, Illinois: " Yes, I have received my commission 
to preach the gospel in Henry County, district of Iowa, for the 
term of twelve months from the commencement of labor. 
Thus the Lord is opening the door into his vineyard, and 
saying, 'Go, proclaim my truth unto the people.' I am to 
be located at Mt. Pleasant, the county seat of Henry County. 
I am to receive $400.00 for the year, and $40.00 for traveling 
expenses. I have decided to leave on the 21st or 22nd of 
August." 

Gaylord was ordained at Plymouth, Connecticut, early in 
August, and August 20th, started West. Of course, he stopped 
at Round Prairie, but soon pushed on to Iowa, decided to 
locate at Mt. Pleasant, and then hurried back to the wedding 
which was October 13. He now begins to say "we." In his 
journal he wrote: "We left for Iowa, November 27, and 
reached Mt. Pleasant December 1, 1838; commenced house- 
keeping, December 23; severe weather and no comfortable 
place for meeting. And now, old 1838 is gone, and '39 comes 



36 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

knocking at the door. Since 1838 commenced, I have assumed 
new and mighty responsibilities. I have taken upon me the 
duties and obligations of the gospel ministry, and entered 
the marriage relation. May I prove faithful and not trust 
too much to my own strength." 

His first report to the Home Missionary Society was as 
follows : 

After a fatiguing journey of nearly five weeks, I have found everything 
as favorable here as I expected, considering the age of the country. The 
settlers came into this country about four years since, and it now con- 
tains not far fr m four thousand inhabitants, on an area of twenty-four 
miles square. Improvements have been put in beyond a parallel in any 
country. The land in a large portion of the country is in the market, 
and much of it already bought and paid for by actual settlers. Mt. 
Pleasant is three years old, and it stands high and commands an extensive 
view of timber and prairie. It will have every facility for building when 
the enterprise of the people shall develop its natural resources. I men- 
tion these things to show the prospects of the place for future growth. 

Gaylord reported again to the Home Missionary Society as 
follows : 

This is the end of the first quarter of my missionary labors in Iowa. 
Being a stranger, it was necessary to move cautiously at first. Weather 
has been most unfavorable on the Sabbath, and we have had no suitable 
place for public worship. Add to this the labor of gathering material for 
housekeeping in a newly ettled country, and it is not surprising if we fail 
to see such results as we expect and hope for. Moreover, prejudices are 
easily excited, and hard to be allayed. I am called an "educated man" and 
a "Presbyterian." Then the term "Yankee" is sometimes as repulsive to 
a Western man as like poles of a magnet. 

Congregationalism did not find congenial soil and atmos- 
phere in Early Iowa. If it won its way it was by its inherent 
worth, and the character of its advocates. 

From August to December, 1838, Asa Turner was alone 
in the Iowa work; then, December first, Reuben Gaylord came 
to his assistance. These two constituted the ministerial 
Pilgrim force for 1839. But there were important develop- 
ments. This year marked the beginnings of five of our impor- 



THE PATRIARCHS, 1838-1842 37 

tant churches. Of course, no one of the early missionaries 
confined his labors to one community. Mr. Gaylord began 
at once to hold services regularly at Danville and New London. 
At Danville, on Sunday, June 30, he wrote in his journal: 
" Spent the forenoon of Saturday visiting among the people 
in that settlement, and in the afternoon preached from the 
words, ' Come out from among them.' Several then presented 
their letters and were organized into a church. On the Sabbath 
Brother Turner came over to assist, and at noon the organiza- 
tion was completed, and we sat down for the first time in our 
infant territory at the table of our blessed Lord." 

This was the second Congregational church organized in 
Iowa, although, according to our minutes, it is fourth on the 
list. Burlington and Dubuque began as Presbyterian churches. 
The change to Congregationalism was so slight that the "his- 
toric continuity" of these churches was in no wise disturbed 
and the earlier dates were retained, but at first they were not 
listed with the Congregational churches of the Territory. 

As we have seen, Cyrus L. Watson labored at Dubuque for 
a few months in 1836-1837, but left no church. May 12, 
1839, a church was organized, under the Presbyterian form of 
government, by Rev. James A. Clark, of Fort Madison. For 
sixteen months from its organization, the church was supplied 
by Rev. Z. K. Hawley, of Connecticut. Then Mr. Townsend 
supplied for a time, and then the church began its great career 
in the Congregational way. 

The Davenport church, the fifth as to date of organization, 
and the third for the year, was organized July 30, with twelve 
members. Albert Hale, one of the Yale Band, missionary 
pastor for many years at Bethel, Bond County, Illinois, for 
thirty years pastor of the second Presbyterian church at 
Springfield, and for many years Lincoln's pastor, assisted in 
the organization of this church. He was at the time Agent 
for the Home Missionary Society. The church was an off- 
shoot from the Old School Presbyterian church previously 



38 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

organized. John C. Holbrook then at Davenport, could not 
be an Old School Presbyterian; and there were others of like 
mind. The first pastor, Rev. J. P. Stuart, was Gaylord's 
classmate in the seminary, and associated with him in his 
plans and efforts for the "Iowa District." His stay in Iowa, 
however, was too brief to be of any significance. 

The next church to be organized is that at Fairfield. Mr. 
Gaylord reports the organization as follows : " During the week 
following December 5th, went by invitation to Fairfield, 
the county seat of Jefferson County. Weather was extremely 
cold. Arrived on Friday, December 20, and shortly after 
it commenced snowing. The snow fell over a foot in depth, 
and interrupted our meeting somewhat. The only shelter 
for my horse was to stand in the snow by the side of a building 
with a blanket over him. On Saturday evening, I held a 
prayer meeting and took the first step toward forming a church. 
Preached Sabbath, the 22nd, and immediately after service, 
organized a Congregational church of twelve members. It 
was a season of deep interest. The settlement is very new, but 
many people are coming into the country." 

The Lyons church, the fifth for the year, and the seventh in 
the state, had its beginnings December 21, over at Union 
Grove, Illinois. The membership was gathered from Union 
Grove, Fulton, and Lyons. Six years later, Union Grove 
became an independent organization, but the Fulton and Lyons 
portion of the church kept together until 1856, at which time 
the Lyons church bade farewell to its Illinois associates. 

The strength of every church is its membership. The 
Lyons church has had its share of strong men. Here is one 
of the men of the early times, Deacon William K. Vincent, who 
united with the church September 20, 1846: "For a long time 
he carried the church almost alone. He was the church! 
He acted as Sunday school superintendent, preacher, chorister, 
sexton — in fact did anything and everything which needed 
to be done. He never returned to his home without service 



THE PATRIARCHS, 1838-1842 39 

because there chanced to be no minister. Living out about 
two miles west of town, he was to be seen driving up each 
Lord's day, rain or shine, to whatever happened to be the 
place of worship. He was equally regular in his attendance 
at Sabbath school and prayer meeting. First unfastening his 
ox-team and caring for their comfort, he would straightway 
proceed to unload the wood he had brought from his own pile, 
the supply for the day, and also material for lighting in the 
evening, and then go forward in his business-like way to build 
the fires and prepare for meeting. When the congregation 
had assembled, in his simple-hearted and fervent manner he 
would take that part of the service in which he was most needed 
— generally with tuning fork in hand, pitching the tunes, 
lining off the hymns and leading the choir in the peculiar style 
of those days; sometimes even acting as preacher, lifting his 
voice in exhortation or prayer. We hear at one time of his 
going with his ox-team as a delegate to a meeting of the 
Association in the interior of the state, hoping to obtain there, 
and bring a minister back to this destitute flock." 

Three events of special significance to Congregational Iowa 
mark the year 1840, — the organization of the Farmington 
Church, the coming of Julius A. Reed, and the forming of the 
State Association. Father Turner reports the organization of 
the church as follows: 

Farmington was my next place. Here I met Brother Clark of Fort Mad- 
ison, who spent the Sabbath with me. Our design was to have preached 
two days, but the weather was so stormy that few could attend. In 
addition to this, my old acquaintance, fever-ague, paid me a visit, and 
took up all my time. A church was organized of fourteen members. 
Their ardent desire is that you will send them a minister. A Congrega- 
tional minister will probably suit them best. This place I deem one of 
importance. It now contains two hundred and fifty inhabitants. Steam- 
boats reach here without hindrance in the fall and spring. The country 
around, on both sides of the river, is densely settled, and I think the de- 
mand for a minister is imperious. They already have a house, about 
25 x 36, now enclosed, and design to finish it immediately. This house 
would be well filled if they had a minister. 



40 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Julius A. Reed, the third of the Patriarchs, was born at 
East Windsor, Connecticut, January 16, 1809, his father's 
house at the time being situated opposite the East Windsor 
Hill Theological Seminary. He was a descendant of Governor 
William Bradford, of the Mayflower. He studied at Trinity 
College, Hartford, and graduated from Yale University in 
the Class of 1829, at the age of twenty. Tutoring a year in 
the family of Hon. William Jay, of Bedford, New York, teach- 
ing a year in the Billington High School, and then spending 
two years as tutor in the family of Judge Perkins of Natchez, 
Mississippi, he got his first taste of the West in a visit to his 
brother, Dr. M. N. Reed, of Jacksonville, Illinois. For a 
long while Mr. Reed debated whether his life work should be 
in law or medicine or the ministry. Deciding at length for 
the ministry, he left Jacksonville in September of 1833, pur- 
chased a horse at Springfield, and went on horseback all the 
way to Connecticut, six weeks being required for the journey, 
and entered the. Yale Divinity School at New Haven. 

While in the seminary, he joined the Illinois Band. Gradu- 
ating in 1835, he was licensed by the New Haven West Asso- 
ciation, received a commission from the American Home 
Missionary Society, was married December 21, 1835, in the 
Female Academy of Jacksonville, Illinois, to Miss Caroline 
Blood, of Concord, Massachusetts, and was ordained in " God's 
Barn" at Quincy, in April of 1836, Asa Turner and Cyrus L. 
Watson assisting in the services. His Illinois parishes were at 
Warsaw, Monticello, Carthage and Nauvoo. This was before 
the Mormons took possession of Nauvoo, and Mr. Reed was 
accustomed to say in after years that Joseph Smith was his 
successor. 

Mr. Reed tried to settle down in the East, in 1839-1840 
serving as chaplain of the insane asylum, in Worcester, Massa- 
chusetts, but the call to the West was so insistent, that for 
the fourth time he set his face toward the setting sun, and 
entered for a life service, the field which he had seen from afar 



THE PATRIARCHS, 1838-1842 41 

in 1833, and which he had touched in missionary tours in 1836, 
1837, and 1838, west of the Mississippi River. Mr. Turner 
wrote in June of 1840: "The people and the church of Fair- 
field are all waiting for you: situation very pleasant, healthy, 
and a wide field of usefulness in the country. About twelve 
miles north is a Yankee settlement at Brighton. I think you 
would be better satisfied here with us Hawkeyes. We should 
be able to form an association this fall." Mr. Reed puts the 
two events together in one sentence: " I joined the Association 
at the time of its organization, and commenced preaching at 
Fairfield, November 29, 1840." 

November 5, a convention met at Denmark, of course, to 
consider the expediency of organizing a Congregational Asso- 
ciation in Iowa. Four delegates came over from the Illinois 
Association to attend the convention. Those present from 
the Iowa churches were Rev. Messrs. A. Turner of Denmark, 
Reuben Gaylord of Danville, and Julius A. Reed, who had just 
entered the state, and delegates William 0. Hitchcock from 
Fairfield, Deacon Oliver Brooks, and Isaac Field from Den- 
mark, and Samuel B. Jagger and Thomas K. Hulburt from 
Danville. For some reason the Davenport, Lyons, and 
Farmington churches were not represented in the Convention. 

On the following morning, November 6, 1840, after a full 
consideration of the important matter, this little band of 
Congregationalists, three ministers and five laymen, had the 
faith and courage to organize the Congregational Association 
of Iowa. I think the brethren must have read that morning, 
"The kingdom of heaven is like unto a grain of mustard seed." 
This was the first Congregational State Association formed 
west of New York. The great importance of this event is set 
forth in one of Mr. Reed's papers, in which he says : 

The organization of this Association was a reversal of the policy pur- 
sued by the Congregationalists from the beginning of the century. A 
large majority of the people were from the West and South. Half of them 
had never heard of Congregationalism and many who had heard of it were 



42 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

indebted for their information to those who were opposed to its obtaining 
a foothold in Iowa. The strife between New School and Old School 
Presbyterians was at its height. The former claimed the Congregational 
element as their own; the latter, while charging Congregationalists with 
disorder and heresy of every description, never refused them admission 
into their churches. The custom so long prevalent among Congrega- 
tionalists of throwing the church polity of their fathers into the Hudson 
as they came to the West, encouraged all denominations to endeavor to 
draw them into their churches and feel a common interest in preventing 
the growth of distinctive Congregationalism. The organization of the 
Association settled the question whether Congregationalism was to have 
a home in Iowa, and whether Congregationalists would adhere to the 
Puritan polity. One result was that Congregationalists coming into the 
state, finding churches of their own order, were not disposed to join others 
and another result was that other denominations meeting little success in 
their attempts to proselyte, have gradually abandoned them. 

A sad event of 1840, was the death of Mrs. Gaylord, Sep- 
tember 23, only a little more than two years after her marriage. 
The old story of dying grace for the dying hour is here repeated, 
for on the day of her death, she said: " Twenty-three years 
ago my father was presented with his first-born daughter, 
and on this anniversary of my birthday, I am about to leave 
earth for heaven." 

Eighteen hundred and forty-one is another notable year in 
our history. One of the significant events, which turned out to 
be of no significance at all, is the opening up of navigation on 
the Iowa River! June 20, the steam-boat " Ripple" reached 
Iowa City. It was a day of great rejoicing, and there was great 
enthusiasm in the banquet held in honor of Captain Jones. The 
captain said: "I have come here to prove beyond a contradic- 
tion that the Iowa River is navigable." Here was one of the 
toasts of the occasion: "Iowa — bounded on the East by the 
' Father of Waters' and interspread by interior channels of navi- 
gation; her prospects are unsurpassed by any portion of the 
great West." And here is another: "May the steamboat 
'Ripple' be successful in obtaining a sufficient quantity of 
freight and passengers to justify her in paying us a visit on the 



THE PATRIARCHS, 1838-1842 43 

fourth of July next." The captain concluded by saying: "Now, 
gentlemen, your river is navigable; the boat is ready; your 
obedient servant is at your service." 

Earlier than this Father Turner had reported many inland 
streams in Iowa "navigable for hundreds of miles toward their 
source"; and later Julius A. Reed predicted that "the Des 
Moines River will be put in shape for slack water navigation 
as far as to Fort Des Moines." Great efforts were made to 
have it so. For the improvement of the river, Congress set 
aside a strip five miles wide, in alternate sections, on both 
sides of the river, from its mouth to its source. This land if 
sold to-day would pay the national debt, and build a war ship 
or two beside. 

This year Oliver Emerson and John C. Holbrook arrived 
together, and churches were organized at Mount Pleasant, 
Brighton, Sabula, and Andrew, the Cottonville church of a 
later day. The date of the Mount Pleasant organization is 
June 27. This is Reuben Gaylord's field, and, of course, he 
has to do with the organization. His record of the event is 
simply this: "Friday, June 25, went to Mount Pleasant, 
and took the preparatory step toward forming a church. 
Preached twice on the Sabbath with considerable freedom. 
At the close of the afternoon service organized a church of 
seven members." 

The date of the Brighton organization is July 31. Here 
again Reuben Gaylord has a part in the service and records 
the event as follows: "On Friday, July 30, I left home for 
Brighton, Washington County, and arrived in the evening. 
Met Brother Reed of Fairfield. Saturday we gathered a few 
friends of the Redeemer, and took the preparatory step for 
the organization of a church. In the morning I spoke. In 
the afternoon a church of ten members was organized with 
appropriate exercises, and in the evening Brother Reed 
preached from John 3:3." 

Both Emerson and Holbrook had come into the territory 



44 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

somewhat earlier, but this year they came together into the 
fellowship of the Congregational ministry in Iowa. They 
came together, but Emerson a little ahead, as he was ordained 
while Holbrook was simply licensed. Autobiography is more 
picturesque and vivid then biography, so we will let Mr. 
Emerson; at least in part, tell his own story. Writing at 
Miles, January 27, 1883, he says: 

I was born in Lynnfield, Massachusetts, March 26, 1813, converted 
under Methodist preaching at Lynnfield, and joined the Baptist church 
in North Reading, in 1827; entered Phillips Academy, March 1, 1828; be- 
came a beneficiary of the American Education Society, on recommen- 
dation of Dr. Leonard Woods, June 27, 1828; entered Waterville College, 
September 20, 1831; began preaching (unofficially), at the request of 
friends, December 25, 1831; graduated from college, and licensed to preach 
by the above named church in July 1835; lost two years by sickness after 
graduation; entered Lane Theological Seminary, September 1837; paid 
my expenses through the Seminary course by preaching, the rule against 
preaching in term time being suspended in my favor; completed the course 
June 10, 1840; applied for ordination as a Baptist minister, and was refused 
solely from my rejection of their "close communion"; came at once to 
Iowa and made a similar application, and was again refused; joined the 
Congregational church at Davenport, Iowa, in March 1841, as a private 
member, continuing to preach constantly, though claiming no ministerial 
standing; ordained in October 1841, by the Congregational Association of 
Iowa. This step was taken with anxiety and hesitation on the part of all 
concerned, as I was known as a decided Baptist, and expecting to remain 
one. 

To make the life of the man as here narrated, stand out a 
little more distinctly before us, these supplementary state- 
ments should be made : His entire left side was paralyzed from 
his birth, and he was heard to say that when his health was 
at its best, he had never seen a well day, and had never taken 
a step without pain. With his other infirmities, he had a 
"club foot/' His studies were greatly interrupted by sickness 
and twice he went home to die. On the evening of the day of 
his graduation from Lane Seminary, June 10, 1840, he took 
deck passage on a steamer for Iowa, not being able to pay 



THE PATRIARCHS, 1838-1842 45 

cabin fare. Ten days later, he landed at Davenport with a 
scanty wardrobe and an empty purse. He supplied the 
Baptist Church for six months, but the refusal of the Baptist 
people to ordain him cut him off from that engagement. 
He supplied the Congregationalist church for six months, his 
salary being $15.00 per month. The ordination was November 
7, not in October, as Mr. Emerson has it in his autobiography. 
The journey to Danville is thus described by Mr. Emerson: 
Mr. Holbrook "was weary of playing the part of Jonah, and 
was about yielding to his long cherished conviction to enter 
the ministry. We obtained the loan of a lame horse, old and 
poor, and a buggy badly shattered and nearly ready to fall 
down. We knew no one but Mr. Turner, and none on the way. 
The meeting was held in a small school house." 

No wonder the brethren of the Association, Turner, Gaylord, 
and Reed, for this was the extent of them, were perplexed. 
But Mr. Holbrook testified to the candidate's character, and 
spirit and preaching ability. When did ever a Congregational 
body turn down a good, sincere man? He was ordained, and 
he went out from that meeting to become our itinerant evange- 
list of Eastern Iowa, the founder of many churches, and the 
special advocate of Christian Union, all of which will appear 
as we proceed. The fruits of his labor begin to appear at once 
in the organization of the Sabula church, December 14, of 
this year, and that of Cottonville, December 26. 

We are at no loss for material to make out a sketch of 
Holbrook's life for his "Recollections of a Nonagenarian" is 
open before us. He, too, is in direct line from Governor 
Bradford. He was born at Brattleboro, Vermont, January 7, 
1808. He studied at Hopkins Academy, Hadley, Massachu- 
setts, and spent two years in a military academy. He suc- 
ceeded his father, a papermaker and publisher at Brattleboro; 
was in business for a time in Boston; returned to Brattleboro; 
organized the Brattleboro Typographic Company; resigned 
his position as president in 1839, and came to Davenport. 



46 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

" I found there/' he says, "only a small Presbyterian church, 
with a rigid Old School pastor. At first I attended his church, 
and engaged in the Sabbath school, but soon found the pastor 
to be an autocrat, of a domineering spirit, who insisted on 
controlling everything, including the Sabbath school, in the 
most arbitrary manner, and, becoming disgusted, I with a few 
others, like-minded with myself, formed a Congregational 
church in which I was elected deacon." 

He tried farming for a time, and school teaching, but with- 
out much success. He frankly admits: "I soon found that I 
was not adapted to agricultural pursuits, and the old proposi- 
tion to preach, which had followed me all my days, returned 
with redoubled force, and I applied to the Congregational 
Association, and received approbation as a minister of the 
gospel after careful examination." 

Holbrook secured at once a commission from the Home 
Missionary Society, and began preaching in communities 
round about his residence at Davenport. There were two 
other ordinations at this Association. Thomas P. Emerson, 
a native of Maine, graduating with his cousin Oliver Emerson 
at Lane Seminary, came on with him to Iowa, and began his 
missionary work at Marion. After a year of service, he came 
down to this meeting and was ordained. He went back for 
another year of service spending it mostly, as his commission 
directed, in missionary labors up and down the Wapsipinecon. 
Emerson soon left the state, and left no organized monument 
behind, nor did he win the grace of a place among our Patri- 
archs. 

The other candidate for ordination at this meeting was 
Charles Burnham, a native of New Hampshire, a graduate of 
Dartmouth, and licensed by the Illinois Association. He made 
a longer stay in Iowa, as we shall see, beginning at Brighton in 
October of this year; but, not remaining long enough, he failed 
to secure a place in the ranks of our Patriarchs. 

At the time of this meeting, another minister had come to 



THE PATRIARCHS, 1838-1842 47 

the state, Rev. Allen B. Hitchcock, a native of Great Barring- 
ton, Massachusetts, born in 1814. He began preaching at 
Davenport, September 12, of this year (1841), and continued to 
November 1, 1844. But he was not here long enough to be 
classed as one of the Patriarchs. 

The year 1842 opened with Turner pastor at Denmark, and 
Agent for the Home Missionary Society; Gaylord at Danville 
and Mt. Pleasant; Reed at Fairfield; Burnham at Brighton, 
Crawfordsville, Washington and Clay; Oliver Emerson, bishop 
of "the lost sheep of the house of Israel," in Clinton and 
Jackson Counties, and also on the east side of the river, supply- 
ing at Andrew, Charleston, and De Witt in Iowa, and Albany, 
Fulton and Union Grove in Illinois; T. P. Emerson, missionary 
up in the Wapsipinecon country; and John C. Holbrook com- 
missioned for Lyons and vicinity. 

One of the memorable incidents of this year is the discovery 
of Holbrook, and his finding himself and his place at Dubuque : 
Death came to his home claiming one of his two sons, and then 
his wife, and he was left with only his eldest son. Homesick- 
ness took possession of him, and he was about to return to the 
East, but, "Just as I had come to the determination," he says, 
"to return to New England, my family physician, Dr. Joseph 
Clark decided to seek a new field, and for that purpose was 
going to Wisconsin. He invited me to take a seat with him. 
I accepted, but without the least idea of settling again any- 
where in the West." 

On their trip through Wisconsin, Dr. Clark and Holbrook 
fell in with Stephen Peet, Agent for the Home Missionary 
Society for the territory. "As Mr. Peet was going to Potosi, 
he proposed that I should accompany him. Having no plan 
to hinder, I accepted the invitation. On our arrival at Potosi, 
we were requested to spend a little time there and hold a series 
of revival meetings, and we did so. Toward the end of the 
week, the Agent informed me that he had an appointment to 
preach on the following Sunday at Dubuque, Iowa, a few miles 



48 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

below on the opposite side of the Mississippi, the church there 
being under his care, and he suggested that I should go there 
in his place. I consented, and on Sunday preached, and on 
the next morning, before I left I received an official call to the 
pastorate of the church on a salary of $600.00 of which $200.00 
was to come from the Home Missionary Society in New York. 
This was to me a total surprise, as I had thought of nothing of 
the kind. I replied that I would take the matter under con- 
sideration, and returned to Potosi. On arriving, I told him — 
Mr. Peet — that I had concluded to accept the call, at which 
he was as much surprised as I had been at receiving it, as he 
had had no such design in regard to me. Rev. Dr. Miter of 
Milwaukee expressed his astonishment also, and added: 
'Well, when he was here, I noticed that he had the bump of 
hope largely developed.' " 

The Home Missionary Agent was indeed surprised at this 
turn of affairs, and said he had no idea that the new licentiate 
would remain in Dubuque three months; but he began there 
in March of 1842, a ministry of twenty-two years, and our 
great church of Dubuque is one of Doctor Holbrook's greatest 
monuments, although he has others East and West. Mr 
Holbrook says that Dubuque at this time was a town of some 
fifteen hundred inhabitants, drawn there by the lead mines, 
and much resembling the early gold mining towns of California. 
"I find," says he, "a little band of nineteen men occupying 
an unfinished plain building, unplastered within and furnished 
only with unpainted pine pulpit and seats, while the prayer 
meetings are held in the basement, likewise unfinished and 
lighted only by night by the candles which the men brought 
in. It was gloomy and unattractive in the extreme. The 
following July after my call, I attended the annual meeting 
of the Iowa Congregational Association at Davenport, and was 
ordained, Father Asa Turner preaching the sermon. In the 
following spring, the Mineral Point Congregational and 
Presbyterian Convention, Wisconsin, with which my church 



THE PATRIARCHS, 1838-1842 49 

was then connected, met in Dubuque, and I was installed as 
pastor, the Rev. Stephen Peet preaching the sermon." 

This was a busy year for all the brethren. Burnham of 
Brighton reached over to Washington, and February 27, 
organized a church of twelve members there ; and to Crawf ords- 
ville, and organized, April 3, a church of eight members there; 
and out to Clay, and with the assistance of Mr. Reed, organiz- 
ing a church of six members there, July 4. July 10, Oliver 
Emerson and A. B. Hitchcock gathered a church of eight mem- 
bers at De Witt, five denominations being represented in the 
organization. Two records of the minutes of this year indicate 
the poverty of the people, and their dependence on the Home 
Missionary Society; " Danville pays $100.00 for the support of 
the gospel. Brighton, $70.00 paid toward the support of the 
pastor." 

Another item of special interest is the action of the Associa- 
tion at Brighton, October 6, of this year: "On motion, a com- 
mittee was appointed to report upon the expediency of taking 
incipient steps towards the foundation of a college in the 
territory. Brethren Turner, Norton, Shedd, and Beach were 
appointed such a committee." 

We read that the spring meeting of "The Congregational 
Association of Iowa" this year began its sessions "at the house 
of Brother Hitchcock." It was the day of small things, and 
meeting-houses had not yet begun to be. These are the days 
of which Mr. Reed writes: 

It is difficult at this day even for those who are familiar with those times 
to recall things as they then were. Many of the settlers were from Ken- 
tucky, Tennessee and North Carolina, and among them some excellent 
people. And there were representatives of the so-called "poor white trash" 
of the South, who kept in advance of civilization, ready to sell and move 
on; but the majority of the settlers were from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and 
New York, and a small contingent from New England. The settlers, 
as a body, were young men commencing life without means, or older men 
who had been unfortunate, and there were very few who had any means 
who had not exhausted them securing their claims, building cabins, and 

5 



50 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

buying their teams, so that almost every one was dependent upon his own 
labor for his daily bread. As supplies of all kinds which they could not 
procure from the soil came from a great distance, and were wagoned from 
the river into the interior, they were expensive and beyond their means. 
Their clothing was covered with patches, and frequently was faced in front 
with buckskin. 

In winter, he says, men sometimes wore two or three pairs of 
summer pants, and lined their straw hats, and it was not possible 
to wear clothes so patched as to attract any attention whatever. 
" They lived on corn-bread, bacon and coffee, which was often 
of corn or rye. Their wheat was trodden out on the ground, 
and as their cheap mills had no appliances for cleaning their 
wheat, the bread partook of the color of the soil. They lived 
chiefly in cabins made of unhewn logs which were 'chinked' 
with sticks split to match the cracks, which were driven in 
and held in place by wooden pins, then covered with lime 
m >rtar, or, if that could not be obtained, with clay or mud. 
The door was made of split boards, had wooden hinges and a 
wooden latch, and opened from the outside by a string which 
passed through the door a little above the latch. To lock 
the door it was only necessary to pull in the string. 'You 
will always find the latch string out,' was equivalent to saying 
'You will always be welcome.' " 



Chapter IV 
THE IOWA BAND, 1843-1844 

They came in 1843. Of course, there had been a long 
series of preparations for this event. Eleven children had 
been born and reared and educated and touched by the grace 
of God, and called into the gospel ministry, and by a great 
compulsion drawn • to the West. Now the names of the 
Eleven, in the order of their ages, with places of nativity 
noted, are as follows : — 

Harvey Adams, Alstead, New Hampshire; Edwin B. 
Turner, Great Barrington, Massachusetts; Daniel Lane, 
Leeds, Maine; Erastus Ripley, Coventry, Connecticut; James 
J. Hill, Phippsburg, Maine; Ebenezer Alden, Randolph, 
Massachusetts; Benjamin A. Spaulding, Billerica, Massachu- 
setts; Alden B. Robbins, Salem, Massachusetts; Horace 
Hutchinson, Sutton, Massachusetts; Ephraim Adams, New 
Ipswich, New Hampshire; William Salter, Brooklyn, New 
York. 

These eleven, college men every one, were classmates at 
Andover Theological Seminary. Sometime in 1842, at chapel 
service, one of these young men, oblivious to all his surround- 
ings, had a vision of the great needs of the vast West of which 
he had been reading, and obedient to the heavenly vision 
responded, "I'll go, I'll go!" 

" Sometime in the fall of 1842," says Harvey Adams, "an 
elder in Doctor Beecher's church in Cincinnati, sent an appoint- 
ment to the Seminary to address the students about the claims 
of the West. Students and professors gathered, but no elder 
came. Doctor Woods, Professor Emerson and Prof. B. B. 

51 



52 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Edwards took the platform. Doctor Woods read a letter 
from Uncle Ira Houston of Denmark. Professor Edwards, 
who had traveled west, said he had no doubt that those who 
would go there would be better off in ten years than if they 
settled in New England, and would also have the satisfaction 
of laboring where they were more needed. Professor Emerson 
said bluntly that he had no sort of doubt that it was the duty of 
more than two-thirds of the students to seek fields of labor 
outside of New England." Mr. Adams retired from that 
meeting to spend a sleepless night of prayer and struggle, 
and soon came to the resolve: "I am for the West, where 
needed, and where most needed! " 

Early in the spring of 1843, as Lane, Hutchinson and 
Ephraim Adams were out on a tramp, Hutchinson first sug- 
gested the idea of a band: "If we, and some others of our 
classmates could only go out together, and take possession 
of some field where we could have the ground and work 
together, what a grand thing it would be! " 

Now, two or three, and then a larger number began to gather 
in the dark for prayer and conference, in the northwest corner 
of the library, and, as they prayed, behold, a star appeared, 
which at length settled low over the unbroken prairies of Iowa ! 

Daniel Lane was the first to speak out the positive word: 
"Well, I am going to Iowa; whether anyone else goes or not, 
I am going!" Ephraim Adams replied: "And I think I will 
go with you! " This was his modest way of saying: "I too, 
have decided to go." One by one ten others decided for 
Iowa; though there was one of the ten who said, "I go, sir," 
and went not. 

The great needs and opportunities of Iowa were called to 
their attention. The pioneers on the ground were almost in 
despair because the people were rushing in, and communities 
being formed by the scores and no ministers for them. "The 
New Purchase," a strip of one million two hundred and fifty 
thousand acres, west of the Black Hawk country, was opened 



THE IOWA BAND, 1843-1844 53 

to settlement May 1 of this year, 1843. It was just as Black 
Hawk said: "We are ordered to the west bank of the 
Mississippi, there to erect other houses, to open new fields, of 
which we shall be robbed again by these pale faces." Again 
the remnants of the Iowa tribes set their faces toward the setting 
sun, and we can easily fancy that we hear them sadly singing as 
they go: 

"They waste us! Aye, like the April snow, 

In the warm noon we shrink away; 
And fast they follow as we go 

Toward the setting day." 

There was a great rush to the new territory. "It seemed 
as if the very flood gates were opened. Every main road 
leading to the promised land was thronged with men, women 
and children." Long before the opening of the New Purchase 
crowds were gathered on the borders. Some crossed over 
and enclosed land and put in crops. Many stole across the 
line and staked out their claims. Dragoons were stationed 
at points along the line to keep back the white invaders. 
They were very lenient, however, and usually gave notice to 
trepassers that they were coming, so that they could get 
away with their rails and log cabins. "Their crops were 
not disturbed, and you might see large piles of rails just east 
of the line." May 1 was Monday. The day began at mid- 
night. Thousands of people along the line were awake, 
"up and dressed," and ready for the rush. Rifle shots 
announced the hour for the scramble to begin. By lantern and 
torch light men staked out their claims, and large portions 
of the region just beyond the line were covered before day- 
light. Within two weeks the New Purchase had a population 
of ten thousand. 

These events did not escape the notice of the patriarchs 
on the ground. Mr. Turner was almost frantic in his appeals 
to the officers of the Home Missionary Society. Here is a 
sample of his communications: — 



54 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

I have done all I could, privately and publicly, to enlist laborers for this 
field. Since my residence in the territory, a father, an old man of sixty- 
three years, is the only minister, fresh from the East, who has dared to 
cross the Mississippi. I hope, as he has gone before and blazed a road, 
and reached his destination in safety, many young men will have the 
moral courage to follow. The farmer, the merchant, the mechanic, the 
doctor and the lawyer, all find their way to the West, led on by interest. 
And are there no ministers of Christ, led on by the love of souls? Bur- 
lington, a town of some eighteen hundred inhabitants has twenty-six 
lawyers, and doctors in proportion, but no Presbyterian or Congregational 
minister. Every little town in the territory has a-plenty of lawyers, and 
scarcely one in ten has a minister of our order. During the five years in 
which New England and New York have sent but one minister, who has 
never been here before, Rome has sent us five, and I think more. We 
need some eight to ten men now. The following places are open, viz: 
Keosauqua, Farmington, Washington, Columbus City, Burlington, Bloom- 
ington, Edinburgh and Andrew. Each of these places needs now a Con- 
gregational or Presbyterian minister. A man is also needed this fall for 
six or eight counties formed on the West, now two weeks old, and having 
two thousand inhabitants. 

Great was the gladness of good Dr. Milton Badger and his 
associates, down in the rooms of the Home Missionary Society, 
at New York when they heard of this large accession to their 
missionary force. 

Asa Turner, Agent of the Society in Iowa, said, " Important, 
if true." Speaking of his incredulity as to their coming, 
he said: " Their letters would have required a volume to 
answer. For twelve years I had written so many letters to 
call men into the Western Field, that I had about concluded 
it was a waste of time and paper. I had so often heard of 
ministers, boxed and marked 'for Iowa' lost on the road, that 
I had lost pretty much all faith in spiritual transportation 
companies. I did not really believe that a batch of them 
would come." 

Here is one of Mr. Turner's letters written to Ephraim 
Adams, dated Denmark, I. T., June 7, 1843: — 

I am happy to hear that a reinforcement from Andover is talked of. 
I hope it will not all end in talk, but I fear. I have received so many 



THE IOWA BAND, 1843-1844 55 

promises of the kind, that they do not now even begin to excite a hope. 
If your professor should write and say that the whole class would start in 
a mass for Iowa in two weeks, I should expect to see one or two of them in 
the course of two years who could find no other resting place for the soles 
of their feet. 

Don't come here expecting a paradise. Our climate will permit men to 
live long enough, if they do their duty. If they do not, no matter how 
soon they die. 

Chances for health, if one is inclined to pulmonary complaints, I think 
are greater than in New England. I have known many persons improved 
by a residence here. We have some two hundred people connected with 
our society here. I doubt whether one in fifty has ever had fever and ague. 
I never knew so much good health for so long a time. 

Office and station are but little regarded here. People will not speak of 
you or to you, as the Rev. Mr. So-and-So, but will call you simply by your 
name, and your wife Peggy or Polly, or whatever her name may be. 

He closes the letter as follows: — 

Come on, brethren, come with the spirit of your Pilgrim Fathers, and 
plant their principles in this rich soil. Don't be ashamed of your mother 
as soon as you cross the Alleghanies, as many of our good brethren are, 
even some on whom she has put honorary titles. The principles of church 
government planted on Plymouth Rock are in my opinion the same as 
taught by our Saviour and his Apostles, and I am free to wish they might 
spread over this great valley. Give my love to all that little band, and 
their intended ones, and say we hope soon to welcome them on the west 
side of the great Mississippi. May the Lord direct your way. 

Yours in Christian Affection, 

Asa Turner, Jr. 

"But," he adds, "it's no use to answer any more questions, for I never 
expect to see one of you west of the Mississippi river as long as I live." 

In a letter written in August, he appears to be a little more 
hopeful that something will come of this Andover movement. 
He wrote: — 

Come prepared to expect small things, rough things. Lay aside all 
your dandy whims boys learn in college, and take a few lessons of your 
grandmothers, before you come. Get clothes, firm, durable, something 
that will go through the hazel brush without tearing. Don't be afraid of 
a good, hard hand, or of a tanned face. If you keep free from a hard 
heart, you will do well, Get wives of the old Puritan stamp, such as hon- 



56 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

ored the distaff and the loom, those who can pail a cow, and churn the 
butter, and be proud of a jean dress or a checked apron. 

Tell those two or three who hink of leading out a sister this fall, we 
will try to find homes as good as Keokuk, the high chief and his lady live 
in, and my wife v ill have the kettle of mush and the johnny-cake ready by 
some cold night in November. 

By September, the Iowa brethren are convinced that prob- 
ably the young men of Andover really mean business, for, 
in this month, Turner and Gaylord make a three weeks' 
tour of exploration to select the most needy and promising 
fields to recommend to the Band. 

Such a great Home Missionary event was thought worthy 
of public recognition. September 3 a great meeting was held 
in the South Church, Andover; sermon by Dr. Leonard 
Bacon, and an address by Dr. Milton Badger. 

Just a month later the Band by appointment was at Albany, 
New York, two of them, Lane and Robbins, counting two each 
by feminine attachment. Wednesday, October 4, the jour- 
ney to the West began, and the first stage of it was by rail. 
Sunday, October 8, was spent at Buffalo, some of the young 
men making addresses; and Prof. Truman M. Post, of Jack- 
sonville, Illinois, was there also to set forth in glowing elo- 
quence the opportunities and needs of the great West. All 
aboard, now, this Monday morning, bright and early, on the 
good boat " Missouri," bound for Chicago! It was Sunday 
morning before they reached this great metropolis of the 
West, which at that time had a population of about eight thou- 
sand. West of Chicago, of course, they took the Prairie 
Schooner Route. They sighted the promised land, October 
23, and a few of them in darkness and in silence, for the canoe 
was loaded down to the danger point, passed over the river 
into Iowa. Burlington gave them a right royal welcome, 
and Denmark opened wide all her cabin doors to receive them. 

Of their reception at Burlington, Ephraim Adams writes : — 

The hospitalities of that entrance to Iowa were never forgotten. Then 
were acquaintances formed and friendships begun that grew and strength- 



THE IOWA BAND, 1843-1844 57 

ened in after years. There was at that time in Burlington, a veritable 
mother in Israel, Mrs. J. G. Edwards, and her generous, hearty husband, 
the founder, editor and proprietor of the Burlington Hawkeye. Their 
Western experience enabled them to see what these young men whom they 
took to their home had before them, as they could not. Everything 
said and done, seemed to be out of the motherly heart, full of joy, yet 
serious and earnest for God's place and the work in hand. The hymn for 
the morning worship was already chosen: 

Kindred in Christ, for his dear sake, 

A hearty welcome here receive, 
May we together now partake, 

The joys which only He may give. 

The Denmark that greeted "The Band" consisted of a few scattered 
farmhouses of New England appearance; and convenient thereto, stood a 
low, broken-backed, elongated building, compelled as yet to do the double 
service of school and meeting-house. 

The Pilgrim pioneers out here to welcome the Andover 
contingent were eight ministers: Turner, Gaylord, Reed, 
Emerson, Holbrook, Hitchcock, Burnham, and Granger, 
a licentiate ; and fourteen little churches : Denmark, Danville, 
Fairfield, Lyons, Davenport, Andrew, Bentonsport, Brighton, 
Farmington, Clay, Crawfordsville, De Witt, Mt. Pleasant, 
and Washington, the total membership about three hundred, 
one third of these at Denmark. Dubuque and Burlington, 
then in the Presbyterian period of their development, are not 
counted in this list. 

Sunday, November 5, 1843, was a notable day at Denmark. 
The whole country was astir. Seven young preachers, all 
in a bunch from Andover, and two others were to be ordained ! 
Alden, Ephraim Adams, Hutchinson, Lane, Salter, Spaulding 
and Turner, are the Andover men, and W. A. Thompson 
who came to the territory about the same time, and Charles 
Granger, a licentiate who had come in July, were the others. 
Harvey Adams and Mr. Robbins had been ordained in the 
East. Julius A. Reed preached the sermon, his theme being, 
" Prerequisites to Success in the Gospel Ministry." Asa 
Turner offered the ordaining prayer, Charles Burnham gave 



58 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

the candidates their charge, and Reuben Gaylord gave them 
the right hand of fellowship. 

It was an occasion of great interest. The house was crowded 
of course. It was a day of great rejoicing, especially among 
the pioneer ministers of the Territory. Mr. Gaylord said: — 
"Such a day I had never seen before; such a day I had never 
expected to see in my lifetime. The most I could do, when 
alone, was to weep tears of joy, and return thanks to God." 
Father Turner was radiant. He said: — "For three weeks 
past, I have felt like weeping all the time. My heart has 
overflowed. O what a week we have had! The Lord be 
praised!" "I felt," said another, "that the sight of that 
day was worth almost a life. The accession which we have 
received is beyond our hopes." Even Julius A. Reed lost 
his poise in the enthusiasm of the hour. The whole thing 
was too good to be true. Nine new missionaries actually 
on the ground, and two others on the way! It was too good 
to be true! 

By what ecclesiastical body were these young men ordained? 
I had supposed, before I began to investigate, that they were 
ordained by a council called for the purpose. Then I under- 
stood that they were ordained by the State Association. 
Further investigation revealed the fact that they were not 
ordained either by the State Association or by a council, but 
by the Denmark Association, organized two days before the 
ordination. 

At the regular meeting of the General Association held 
at Iowa City, September 14 and 15 of this year, 1843, steps 
were taken to divide the field into two minor associations, 
the Iowa River being the dividing line between them. Asa 
Turner, at the next meeting of the General Association, reports 
the Denmark Association organized November 3, and further 
states the first official act of the Association after its organi- 
zation was the ordaining of these young men. The North- 
ern Iowa Association was organized a few days later. 



THE IOWA BAND, 1843-1844 59 

Now here is a delicate piece of business, the placing of these 
men in a Congregational way. The young men were willing 
to place themselves in Father Turner's hands for assignments, 
but he was not willing to accept the responsibility. He and 
Mr. Gaylord met the young men, spread a map before them, 
and described the field, and then retired, leaving them to 
adjust the matter among themselves. The wonderful thing 
"was done with perfect harmony and good will, and quickly 
done, without an unpleasant word or a jealous thought; and 
every one was satisfied." Hutchinson inclined to Burlington, 
and Harvey Adams to Farmington. A man from Keosauqua, 
seeking a minister for that place, picked out Daniel Lane. 
Bloomington, now Muscatine, a smart town of four hundred, 
seemed to be the place for one of the brides of the Band, and 
so Alden B. Robbins went down there to stay a little while, 
say fifty years or more! Out in the New Purchase, in the 
region about what is now Ottumwa, some rough work was to 
be done. Brother Spaulding said he would as soon take 
that field as any. William Salter and E. B. Turner rather 
liked the idea of exploring fields to the north in Jones and 
Jackson Counties. Ephraim Adams selected Mt. Pleasant, 
and Mr. Alden, Solon. 

One of the surprises of the ordination and settlement of the 
Band was that everything should go the Congregational way. 
Father Turner in his correspondence with the Band had scru- 
pulously avoided the question of church polity. When, 
near the time of their starting West, one of the Band asked 
him directly which form of church was the best adapted to 
the West, he replied: "Congregationalism, the world over!" 
Ephraim Adams' testimony is: — "With a number, when they 
came to the Territory, the matter of church polity was an 
open question. There had been no conference, by which any 
conclusion or agreement had been reached as to whether they 
should be Congregationalists or Presbyterians. The feeling 
was that very likely some would be one, and some the other." 



60 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

At Buffalo, the young men were told that in the West, 
there were "none but Presbyterians to unite with," which 
was almost true, though the Congregational renaissance 
movement had set in. After they were on the ground, no one 
tried to influence them to become Congregationalists. Meet- 
ing them at Burlington, Father Turner told them that "if 
they wished to be Presbyterians, Presbytery was to meet at such 
a time and place, if Congregationalists, the Association would 
meet at Denmark." 

Mr. Reed's comment was as follows: 

It was not known to which body any one of them would attach himself, 
but I expected, from the past, that most if not all, would apply to Presby- 
tery for ordination. What made this supposition still more probable, was 
that most of the Congregational body were known as radical anti-slavery 
men, and were not in high repute among their own mother's children on 
account of the same. To our surprise, all who had not been ordained at 
the East, asked to be set apart to the gospel ministry, by the Association. 
I have every reason to believe that nothing was said by any Congregation- 
alist from first to last to influence their decision on this, subject. I recollect 
distinctly that when we dispersed after the adjournment of the Associa- 
tion, I knew the denominational preference of only two of the whole Band . 
One disclosed his preference by a casual remark, and the other by a 
question. I still supposed that the Band sought ordination by the Associa- 
tion for convenience sake, and that their denominational relations were not 
yet determined. 

Three of the Band, ordained by a Congregational Asso- 
ciation, took charge of Presbyterian churches. It was ex- 
pected that these certainly would become Presbyterians, but 
instead of this the churches became Congregational. 

There were two Presbyterian churches at Muscatine when 
Mr. Robbins arrived. The New School church was organ- 
ized by Rev. John Stocker, a New England Congregationalist 
in the employ of the A. H. M. S., July 6, 1839. All parties 
felt that a union was desirable, but the Old School could not 
unite with the New School, and the New School could not 
unite with the Old School, so they did the sensible thing, 
they united in the formation of the Congregational church, 



THE IOWA BAND, 1843-1844 61 

and Mr. Robbins had nothing to do about it. He expressed 
regret when he heard that the matter was being discussed, 
lest he should be censured for it. The date of this organiza- 
tion is November 29, 1843. 

The Burlington church was largely Congregational in its 
constituency from the start, and there was a Congregational 
element in the community that would not unite with the 
Presbyterians, so it was the thing to be expected that on the 
arrival of Mr. Hutchinson, the change should be made. This 
was done by unanimous vote, December 28, 1843. "Only 
one member, a lady, stood aloof on account of the change." 

At Keosauqua, Daniel Lane could not in good conscience 
leave the discipline of the church to the Session, as he counted 
this one of the prerogatives of the whole church. Rather 
than lose their pastor, they voted unanimously to make the 
change. So the unexpected came about, that within a few 
months every member of the Band should be fixed in his 
field as a pronounced Congregational minister. 

The coming of the Band was an event of far reaching 
significance and importance. It put new hope and courage 
into the hearts of the patriarchs already on the ground. 
"They at once," says Mr. Reed, "doubled our ministerial 
strength, supplied our destitute churches and occupied new 
and important fields. It was no longer a question whether 
Congregationalism was to live west of the Mississippi. Bonds 
of union with New England were formed and channels of 
information were opened which secured foi us the confidence 
and sympathy of the Congregationalists of the country, and 
have enabled us to obtain men and means for our various 
enterprises to a cheering extent." 

In another connection, speaking of the same matter, Mr. 
Reed says: 

In addition to the various labors which the Band performed during these 
many years, there was one thing which the providence of God permitted 
them, rather than their brethren to accomplish. They settled the ques- 
tion that Congregationalism was to become a power in Iowa, and indeed 



62 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

in the West, and was to enjoy the sympathy and aid of Eastern churches. 
It was claimed that Western Congregationalists who refused to become 
Presbyterian were unsound in the faith, or were "radicals," a synonym for 
everything bad, and as the parties accused were little known, and as names 
were rarely given, these charges could not be disproved. 

But this Band represented six states and eight colleges; graduates of 
Andover, whose soundness in the faith, at that time none questioned, 
banded together for Iowa, holding their parting meetings in the Old School 
church at Andover, and making their journey westward together, and 
speaking on the Sabbath at Buffalo and Chicago, they attracted as much 
attention throughout the north as a like party now would, if on their way 
to Central Africa. Their orthodoxy could not be assailed. It was danger- 
ous to call them cranks, and a good share of New England at once gave 
their confidence and sympathy to Iowa Congregationalism. 

How the Illinois brethren regarded the event, appears in 
the following: 

A band of Congregationalist ministers went out from Andover beyond 
the Mississippi and commenced planting Congregational churches before 
the robins had arrived there, and before the prairie wolves had received 
a formal notice to leave. In Illinois it was not so. Our first churches were 
Presbyterian. For years New England people were coaxed into Presby- 
terian enclosures, marked with "P," and claimed as original Presbyterian 
"dyed in the wool." This subjected us to complications from which our 
Iowa brethren were free. 

The coming of the Band had the immediate effects already 
described. What larger results spring from their coming, for 
they came to spend their lives in Iowa, this narrative will, 
in part, unfold, for the men of the Band have a place on almost 
every page of our history from 1843 up to the present hour. 

The middle of November found nine of the members upon 
their fields of labor. In the year previous to their coming, 
May 14, a church of fourteen members had been formed at 
Bentonsport and, November 10, the preliminary steps had been 
taken for an organization at Maquoketa. The Maquoketa 
record begins as follows: "In 1840, Father Turner visited 
the settlement and promised aid from the Home Missionary 
Society and that a minister of the gospel should be sent there." 



THE IOWA BAND, 1843-1844 63 

During the summer of the same year Father Emerson, the 
first Congregational minister to do so, preached occasionally 
to the people. Those services were undenominational, and 
were held in the sod-covered sanctuary. The date of organi- 
zation recognized in our later Minutes is November 30, as 
on the evening of that day "a few Christian friends met in 
the house of John Shaw and agreed to unite as a church 
organization." The earlier Minutes made the date December 
10, at which time the organization was perfected under the 
leadership of the first pastor, William Salter. "The govern- 
ment of the church was semi-Presbyterian, being administered 
by two elders. The meetings, however, were open to the 
presence and advice of all the members of the church." 

Father Emerson claims that the Northern Association 
too, had a hand in the organization of the Maquoketa church. 
He writes: — "The past quarter has marked the formation 
of the Congregational Association of Northern Iowa. The 
meeting was held at the Forks of the Maquoketa, where Bro- 
ther Salter is located. Those present were Salter, E. B. 
Turner, Robbins and myself. We organiz d a church of 
eight members and also the Association. The body is designed 
to embrace the Congregational ministers and churches north 
of the Iowa River." 

As we have already seen, Brother Robbins' Presbyterian 
church at Bloomington, on the 29th of November of this 
year, blossomed out into Congregationalism, to be a fragrant 
plant forever. 

Probably the "Congregational Renaissance" is more marked 
in Iowa than anywhere else. Turner, Reed, Gaylord and 
Holbrook were Congregationalists to the core. All the mem- 
bers of the Band were now committed to the Congregational 
way. It was really the wish of all the workers that every- 
thing be done according to the Congregational rule and 
order. But there was pressure from the outside in the direc- 
tion of organic union with the Presbyterians. The Home 



64 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Missionary Society favored it. Somehow Stephen Peet was 
anxious that Iowa should adopt the Wisconsin plan and came 
over to use his influence to this end. The Iowa brethren 
were willing and anxious to join hands with the Presbyterians 
upon some equitable basis of union. An elaborate plan of 
union was adopted by the Associa ion in the fall of this year, 
but it takes two to make a bargain. To our artistic and 
melodious piping the Presbyterian brethren would not dance. 
Perhaps these strict Calvinists had conscientious scruples 
against the practice. The great plan of union is embalmed 
in the Minutes of 1843, as many another royal mummy lies 
buried in this great mausoleum, our State Minutes. 

Of course, Mr. Reed has some remarks to make upon this 
episode. He says: 

The Presbytery met and had the report under consideration, but they 
never made any communication to the Association respecting it and never 
recognized officially the advances of the Congregationalists. These efforts 
to secure a union show the animus of the Congregationalists of Iowa tow- 
ard Presbyterianism. They never were the propagandists that they have 
been represented to be. What objections to the plan proposed were enter- 
tained by the Presbyterians, I have never heard, but it is manifest that 
no plan would have been acceptable to them, which did not involve a 
surrender of Congregationalism. 

The Congregationalists of Iowa rejoice that their offer was rejected, 
and only regret that all plans of union between Congregationalists and 
Presbyterians have not met with the same treatment. To be sure, the 
rejection of this plan was not very courteous, but all that is forgiven and 
forgotten in their joy that it was rejected. 

Eighteen hundred and forty -four was a busy year of planning 
and planting, and seed sowing and harvest. J. J. Hill of the 
Band, detained in the East by the sickness and death of his 
father, came on in the spring of this year, and took away Hol- 
brook's boast that there was no minister between him and the 
north pole, by settling at Garnavillo, and taking possession 
of Clayton County. 

Erastus Ripley, remaining for a time at Andover, as the 



THE IOWA BAND, 1843-1844 65 

" Abbott Resident" of the Seminary, now began his work as a 
missionary of the Home Missionary Society, at Bentonsport. 

All the other members of the Band were heard from during 
the year. Bro. Ephraim Adams writes from Mt. Pleasant: 
"I am in a town of some five hundred inhabitants. I wish, 
if possible to gather a church, and make this a center of influ- 
ence for the surrounding country." A church had been organ- 
ized three years before; it was now so small and weak that 
Brother Adams thought it hardly worth counting. Harvey 
Adams reports that "it has rained, more or less, more than 
forty days and forty nights, but three Sunday schools have 
been established and an infidel converted." This was the 
beginning of the end of the Abner Kneeland influence in that 
region. Mr. Alden of Tipton reports the organization of a 
church of three members. "This appears like a day of small 
things," he says, "yet we hope to see here a flourishing church, 
exerting a salutary influence upon the whole surrounding 
country." The hope of the founder has been realized in the 
work and influence of the Tipton church. 

Mr. Hutchinson of Burlington writes: "I came here about 
the first of November. Our congregations have nearly trebled 
since I came. The church numbered eighteen; at our first 
communion four joined us. At the reorganization of the 
church others came, and at our last communion six more 
united, making our present number thirty-two. Eight or 
ten more, we hope, will join us at our next communion, though 
the prejudice of education may prevent some. We need a 
house of worship much. Our congregation would soon be 
more than double, if we had a good place of meeting." 

Daniel Lane reports: "In Keosauqua it is becoming more 
popular among certain classes who frequent the sanctuary," 
and that at his other appointments all sorts of people, "Chris- 
tian, infidels and worldings," attend the services. 

One visiting Bloomington, now Muscatine, this year, says: 
"You look in vain for the least sign of a church; and the 



66 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

bell of the boat sounds tenfold more like your 'church-going' 
bell at home, than any you will hear for years to come, if you 
tarry this side of the 'Father of Waters.' There are those 
here whose eyes fill with tears at the sound of that bell, remind- 
ing them of the church bells of New England." 

Mr. Robbins says: "There are more than seven hundred 
people in the town, and there is no meeting-house in the place, 
except a small Romish chapel, which is opened only occasion- 
ally. For several Sabbaths after my arrival I preached at 
the court-house. There are connected with the church 
twenty-four members, eleven males. We are all poor, but we 
are hoping and working. They have hired a small room for 
which we are obliged to pay $50.00 a year, and also furnish 
benches, etc. It is essential that we should immediately 
erect a house." 

Brother Salter reports from Maquoketa: — "The prospects 
of this field are encouraging; the attendance at meeting 
increases every month; the little log house we occupy at this 
place is, on pleasant Sundays crowded, and sometimes, some 
are not able to get in. In different settlements are six Sunday- 
schools, and about one hundred scholars. Large emigration 
is coming into Northern Iowa this year." Northern Iowa 
then was Jones, Jackson, Dubuque and Linn counties. 

Mr.Spaulding's reports this year are voluminous but of 
romantic interest. He was at Agency, Ottumwa, and the 
regions beyond, on the very verge of civilization. In plain 
sight were the dismantled lodges of Appanoose and Wapello, 
and not far away was the grave of Black Hawk and the graves 
of hundreds of his people. 

"This field," says Mr. Spaulding, "lies entirely in that tract of coun- 
try which was possessed by the Indians till the first of May, 1843. Their 
frail dwellings, slight fences, beaten trails and newly made graves are still 
seen; and they are often passing and repassing, carrying away corn which 
has been raised on their fields, and sometimes lingering about their old 
hunting grounds, as if unwilling to leave a land which has been so long 
their home. Meanwhile, the busy hand of civilization is hewing down 



THE IOWA BAND, 1843-1844 67 

their forest trees, erecting mills upon their rivers, and dividing the country 
into farms." 

Whittier's lines, all but "The Jesuit's chapel bell," fit into 
his experience: 

I hear the far-off voyager's horn, 

I see the Yankee's trail — 
His foot on every mountain pass, 

On every stream his sail. 

I hear the mattock in the mine, 

The axe-stroke in the dell, 
The clamor from the Indian lodge, 

The Jesuit's chapel bell. 

1 see the swarthy trappers come 

From Mississippi's springs; 
And war chiefs with their painted brows; 

And crests of eagle wings. 

Behind the scared squaw's birch canoe, 

The steamer smokes and raves; 
And city lots are staked for sale, 

Above old Indian graves. 

"The beauty and fertility of the country," says Mr. Spaulding, "the 
abundance of timber and, above all, the facilities offered to the manufac- 
turer by the Des Moines, its branches and the neighboring streams, are 
drawing together a population which will soon surpass that of most other 
portions of the Western country. 

"This population is a mixed multitude gathered from all parts of the 
United States, possessing every degree of intelligence from the liberally 
educated, to the most ignorant, and belonging to almost every religious sect 
in Christendom, besides including many who boast that they are infidels. 

"The greatest obstacle in my way has been a want of suitable places for 
meeting. There are as yet, no public buildings of any kind in my whole 
field of labor, with the exception of a single small schoolhouse; and pri- 
vate dwellings are often inconvenient and cold. Dwelling houses are 
always open for preaching, and so far is this from being regarded as a sac- 
rifice, it is often esteemed a privilege even by those who are not professors 
of religion. At one place the congregation was so large that they could 
not be accommodated in an unusually large dwelling, but were obliged to 
meet in a neighboring grove, so that their house was literally, 'a house 
not made with hands.' 



68 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

11 The congregation assembled was not a company of wild hunters and 
ruffians, with their rifles in their hands, but a collection of intelligent and 
well dressed families from the older states, and even the Atlantic shore, 
whose personal appearance and respectful conduct would not suffer from 
a comparison with many congregations that I have seen within forty miles 
from Boston." 

And still later, summing up the work of the first year, he 

says : — 

It has been the most interesting year of my life. I have preached in 
about thirty different places. Six of these were under the charge of some 
of my brethren, one in the Indian country, and the remainder in the limits 
assigned to my care. At some of these places I have preached but once, 
at some twice, at others more, and at some eight or ten times each. Within 
these limits two Congregational churches have been formed. I have 
travelled about two thousand and five hundred miles during the year, 
chiefly on horseback. I have been in journeyings often, in perils of waters, 
in perils in the wilderness, in weariness and painfulness, in hunger and 
thirst, and in cold. But in all this, I joy and rejoice, and even glory. 

Here is an account of his visit to Fort Des Moines, the 
beginning of our capital city: — 

A few weeks since, I visited "Raccoon River Agency," nearly one hun- 
dred miles from this place, and thirty or forty from the line which divides 
this from the country at present occupied by the Indians. Nearly a mile 
from this, on the point between the Raccoon and the Des Moines, is a 
garrison consisting of about one hundred soldiers and five commissioned 
officers. The whole population, in the settlement, is not far from two 
hundred. On the Sabbath I preached to as many of these as could be 
crowded into a single room, officers, soldiers, merchants, mechanics, farm- 
ers, gentlemen, ladies, children and servants, both black and white. 

E. B. Turner reported his missionary tours and the discovery 
of many homesick Christians in lonely pioneer homes. He 
said : — 

I did not travel a day in which I did not find Christians who welcomed 
me to the country and their homes. Some of them had come from the 
land of the Pilgrims, and had lived here for years without hearing a single 
sermon. One old lady I found of about seventy years of age, from Con- 
necticut. You can better imagine than I can describe the joy which 
beamed from her countenance at the sight of a New England minister. 



THE IOWA BAND, 1843-1844 69 

"Especially," said she, "do I rejoice to see one from Andover." In the 
whole circuit which I have travelled, I have found twenty or twenty-five 
professors, Congregationalists and Presbyterians, with their letters from 
three to six years old. 

To show you the anxiety that Christians feel here on the subject of 
forming churches, and promoting Christ's kingdom, I have only to state 
that two of the men who assisted in forming this church (one being over 
fifty and the other over sixty), came twelve miles on foot, and that, too, 
when the walking was exceedingly bad. We have at present no house of 
worship. There is some talk of putting up one for this church next 



Of course, John C. Holbrook was heard from. For years 
no missionary in the country reported more often or at greater 
length than he. He says: — 

The church was originally formed on the Presbyterian model, and its 
modest and unfinished house of worship was heavily mortgaged. Those 
on whom I thought I could depend for help were Congregationalists, and 
would not feel, I thought, any special interest in the case. But just then 
an event occurred which solved the difficulty. There was but one ruling 
elder, and he had become very unpopular by reason of his dictatorial 
spirit. He sought to be emphatically a ruling elder, and involved the 
church in debt. There was then a young man in the church, who after- 
wards entered the ministry and went as a Home Missionary to Calif ornia, 
and later became the very efficient superintendent of the missions of the 
American Home Missionary Society in that state. Seeing no way of 
relieving the church from its embarrassment under the ruling elder, the 
young man referred to made a motion at a business meeting, that all the 
members of the church should be elected ruling elders! This was carried 
and presto, the body was transformed into a Congregational church. It 
soon after became such formally, and in fact. 

According to Mr. Reed the motion was "that we resolve 
ourselves into a Congregational church for six months, and 
that we all make ourselves ruling elders." This was December 
12, 1844. The young man referred to was James H. Warren, 
for nearly fifty years missionary and Superintendent of 
Home Missions in California. 

Congregational Iowa of 1844, as indeed all the Western 
world, is sketched in vivid outline and color in a report of a 



70 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

trip to the Mississippi Valley, by Secretary Joseph S. Clark 
of Massachusetts. At Cleveland he met the Reverend 
Mr. Hicks, of Chicago, to whom he remarked: "When I get 
to your place, I suppose I shall be at the West." "Oh, no," 
said he, "I have to ride a week from my place before I get 
to the point where they start to go West." 

Coming up the Mississippi, he found the river in places 
twenty-seven miles broad, and houses and cattle afloat. 
Passing Hamburg, he inquired of the Captain if there was 
any fever-and-ague in the place. The response was that there 
was nothing else. From Quincy he reported eleven Congre- 
gational churches in Illinois, and adds: "There appears to 
be a strong feeling of distrust between the Presbyterian and 
Congregational ministers." 

At Burlington there was a population of about twenty- 
five hundred. He attended a Whig Convention at which 
about six hundred lunched together. Preaching for Brother 
Hutchinson on Sunday, he made this comment: "There is 
much indifference to public worship, and much caprice 
among the hearers. I tried to convince them that the gospel 
is worth what it costs." He found Bloomington a village 
of about a thousand, and Brother Robbins and people are 
taking out the stumps for the foundation of a church building. 
"The contributions for the meeting house," he says, "are 
mostly in form of building materials and labor; very little 
money. I find it a melancholy fact that many New England 
people in these parts do but little to aid the gospel." One 
man asked to subscribe for the meeting-house said "he would 
give five dollars toward tearing it down." 

He and Doctor Robbins took a trip of thirty miles to Tipton 
and found Brother Alden "pleasantly situated, boarding in 
a tavern in the small room which was lodging, study and all, 
contented with his lot, in good spirits and doing good. His 
church has three members. They meet in the jail for wor- 
ship." 



THE IOWA BAND, 1843-1844 71 

He found Davenport "a beautiful part of the country, but 
the village stationary." At Galena, he finds Mr. Kent's 
church with two hundred and sixty members. " Brother 
Kent and others think Brother Holbrook ought to be appointed 
an Agent of the American Home Missionary Society, to labor 
in this mining district embracing parts of Illinois, Wisconsin 
and Iowa; to preach to new settlements, organize churches, 
and locate ministers. I doubt the expediency, but will com- 
municate with the Executive Committee at New York." 

He reported a population of eighteen hundred at Dubuque. 
" Preached Sunday," he says, "for Brother Holbrook, to a 
congregation of about two hundred gathered from seven 
nations (namely, English, Irish, Scotch, French, German, 
Canadian, and United States) ; and those of this nation com- 
ing together from fourteen states and belonging to six different 
denominations." 

From nearly all the reports of the year, there is a call for 
suitable places of worship. These appeals in due time find 
a response in the organization of the Church Building Society. 
Denmark Academy, chartered February 3, 1843, is this year, 
February 23, 1844, brought into real existence by the organi- 
zation of the board of trustees. 

This year, too, there are foregleams of Iowa College. As 
early as 1838, Gaylord and his associates at Yale had talked 
of the college they hoped to found in Iowa. Probably it 
was in 1842 that Ephraim Adams at Andover said to his 
associates, "If each one of us can only plant one good perma- 
nent church, and all together build a college, what a work that 
would be!" A little more to the purpose is the remark of 
Asa Turner to Julius A. Reed (this, also, in 1842), "We must 
take steps to found a college." 

In October of this year, as we have seen, the matter was 
taken up by the Association. "At the close of one of the 
first meetings held at Denmark after the arrival of the Band," 
says Mr. Adams, "they were invited to tarry a few moments 



72 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

and listen to plans for founding a college. A little surprised 
were they, and not a little gratified." 

March 12, a meeting was held at Denmark, of ministers 
and others interested in founding a college. "The plan pro- 
posed was to find a tract of land subject to entry, in some 
good location, and obtain funds for its purchase," thus securing 
endowment for the college. A suitable location was the 
first item of importance in the program. A committee of 
exploration was appointed, with J. A. Reed chairman. The 
committee acted promptly and selected a spot on the Wapsi- 
pinecon, where the flourishing city of Independence now stands. 

The committee acted promptly, after again calling, April 16, 
a convention of Congregational and New School Presbyterian 
ministers to hear the report, and take such steps as the case 
demanded. There was a general attendance of the parties 
invited. The report was favorably received and adopted, and 
an Association formed under the title, "Iowa College Association," 
and Father Turner was appointed Agent to go East and raise 
$30,000 to be invested in this land for the endowment of the 
college. Mr. Turner went at once to Boston, and laid the 
matter before prominent men of the East, Lyman Beecher, 
Edward Beecher, Milton Badger, Theron Baldwin, Doctor 
Kirk, and others, but they were not favorable to the proposi- 
tion. They turned it down. They thought there was a 
smack of speculation in the scheme. They " recommended 
that a good location should first be secured, the best for the 
college, irrespective of other considerations; that donations 
should be called for outright, and that the institution trust 
to the patronage of the Education Society and of friends 
whose liberal endowments could eventually be secured." 
So the scheme was abandoned, and the great opportunity lost. 
What if Iowa College had at that time preempted Independ- 
ence and the surrounding country! 

This year, 1844, witnesses the death of Abner Kneeland, 
apostle of infidelity in the Des Moines valley, and also that 



THE IOWA BAND, 1843-1844 73 

of Joseph Smith* the founder of the Mormon sect; and this 
year, the State Association send a request to Governor Cham- 
bers to appoint a day of Thanksgiving, and resolved, also, 
that "In case the Governor declines, we recommend the 
churches to observe the last Thursday in December as such." 
The governor acted upon the suggestion of the Association. 



Chapter V 
" OTHER MEN LABORED," 1845-1849 

The Patriarchs and the Band have largely occupied these 
pages up to this point, and they will continue to have a prom- 
inent place, but other laborers are coming in, and now, from 
this time on, while these earlier workers will not be in the 
background, they will be in the minority. 

The Patriarchs, the Band, and other workers, have reached 
out in the influence of their organized institutions, planting 
churches here and there, as far north as " Sodom and Gomor- 
rah" on the verge of the " Neutral Grounds"; and as far west 
as Oskaloosa, and Knoxville, and they are even beginning to 
touch a little the incipient City of Des Moines. 

Eighteen hundred and forty-five was a year of progress, but it 
was a year of unusual sickness and mortality, especially along 
the Des Moines river, and not a few of the early settlers return 
to their earlier homes. The Home Missionary Secretaries report : 

Friends of missions will share with us the affliction which we feel, in 
the prostration of some of our valued missionary brethren. Rev. Asa 
Turner of Denmark, after recovering, as was supposed, from an attack 
of lung complaint a year ago, is now, as we learn, again laid aside, with 
diminished prospects of restoration to health. Rev. Horace Hutchinson 
of Burlington, has been obliged to resign his charge and is setting his house 
in order with the prospect of ere long entering upon the service of the 
Saviour in a higher sphere. 

Another of that Band had been obliged to suspend his labors 
temporarily on account of enfeebled health. 

Nevertheless, the work moved on. Everywhere people 
were coming in and improvements were being pushed forward. 
From Burlington came the word: "The country around us is 

74 



"OTHER MEN LABORED," 1845-1849 75 

filling up. Miles of new fence have been put up this season, 
upon all the roads leading into town." 

Dubuque reported: "The growth of our town during the 
past season has been greater than in any preceding year of 
its history; and it is conceded on all hands that it is destined 
to be a populous city, and a place of extensive trade. The 
surrounding country is also filling up, and it will, unquestion- 
ably be covered with a dense population. 

"The government has appropriated $14,500 for the improve- 
ment of the harbor," and "has expended $18,000 in improving 
the great 'Military Road,' as it is called, leading from this 
place, via Iowa City, to the Missouri line. The rivers and 
creeks, as well as the worst sloughs, are now mostly bridged, 
with substantial structures; and an avenue of trade and com- 
munication between this place and the country has been opened 
that will be of advantage to both." 

Keokuk took up the refrain and prophesied: "All business 
men appear to agree in the belief, that this must speedily 
become a large town, and that in a very few years it will be 
one of the principal places of business between St. Louis and 
Galena." 

This year church buildings began to appear. At the time 
of the coming of the Band, the only Congregational houses of 
worship in the territory were those at Denmark and Fairfield, 
both of these of the plainest and cheapest sort, the former cost- 
ing perhaps $500 and the other $300. Now, here were two 
more, a slight improvement on these, one at Cascade, and the 
other at Muscatine. No description of the house at Cascade 
can be found, but Brother Turner reported, "Since we opened 
our new house of worship, our congregations have been con- 
siderably larger, and are gradually increasing." The house 
at Muscatine was "a little brick building at the top of the hill 
among the stumps." "It is 22x40 and costs about $900. 
It was at "the time the best Congregational church edifice 
in Iowa." Mr. Robbins wrote of this building: "It is small 



76 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

but built by home effort, and it is neat and comfortable. We 
have advanced thus far in opposition to the prejudices of 
many, and without a farthing of assistance from several of 
the most wealthy men of the place, the ones who will be most 
profited in a pecuniary sense. " 

Brother Harvey Adams of Farmington, was happy in the 
use of " the new ware-room." " This has been all that we could 
ask for, as a place of worship, neat, commodious, warm, with 
good seats and a pulpit." What more could a preacher want? 
" Immediately on holding meetings for worship here, our con- 
gregation was enlarged, so that we have more than a hundred, 
usually in the mornings, and sometimes more than two hun- 
dred." 

Churches this year were organized at Long Creek, January 
15, this being the first of our Welsh churches; also at Eddyville, 
January 31. This of course, is part of Brother Spaulding's 
field. Mr. Reed assisted in the organization. Revivals, 
conversions from the ranks of infidelity, and ingatherings, are 
reported from Dubuque, Fairfield, Farmington, Keosauqua, 
Bentonsport, and other places. Brother Lane of Keosauqua 
made report: "A few years ago, the most popular class of 
society here were the disciples of Abner Kneeland. This state 
of the community does not now exist. Infidelity now is almost 
dead. The strength of the giant power is gone. These re- 
marks apply to all the prominent towns on the Des Moines 
River." 

Really pathetic was the rejoicing of Brother J. J. Hill at 
Garnavillo. "At our last communion, we had the addition 
of one to our church by profession. It was the first accession, 
and it was a memorable day for our little Zion. Tears of 
gratitude and joy stood in many eyes." 

In September of this year Denmark Academy was open for 
instruction, Albert Sturgis, teacher. This year our first 
Home Missionary Agent was appointed. Asa Turner had 
acted as Agent a good deal of the time, since coming to the 



"OTHER MEN LABORED," 1845-1849 77 

state, but he had done the work in connection with his pastorate 
at Denmark. Now the work demanded the whole time and 
strength of a strong man. The Iowa brethren were ambitious. 
They asked the New York secretaries to appoint to the posi- 
tion Rev. Joseph S. Clark of Boston, then secretary of the 
Massachusetts Home Missionary Society. He could not be 
persuaded that "the Massachusetts of the West" was better, 
so the second choice of the brethren was Julius A. Reed. 
Securing the appointment, in October, of this year, he removed 
to Davenport, then a village of seven hundred inhabitants, 
to be near the center of operations. The field at this time was 
a narrow strip along the river, and Davenport was fairly 
central. 

Brother Adams gives us a picture of the Agent's outfit: 
" His vehicle was a top buggy, a top high and lifted up, a marvel 
for those days. His horse was milky white; and almost as a 
ship at sea with its white winged sails, he went sailing over the 
prairies. His craft seen at a distance was known and hailed 
everywhere." He was the man for the time, and for the serv- 
ice. Thoroughly educated, of pioneer instincts, seasoned by 
service, a man of affairs, of a judicial turn of mind, careful 
and accurate in all his statements, and a man of vision, he 
was an ideal man of the time and place. Under his leader- 
ship from 1845 to 1857 more than sixty churches were organ- 
ized. Mr. Reed is succeeded at Fairfield by Rev. W. A. 
Thompson, graduate of Yale, ordained with the Band at 
Denmark, and after that located at Troy in Davis County, 
pastor of the Presbyterian church there. 

Eighteen hundred and forty-six has its lights and shadows. 
This too, is a "sickly season." Early in the year comes the 
first break in the missionary ranks occasioned by death. For 
months Horace Hutchinson, of consumptive tendencies, had 
faced the fact that his time of service would be short. At 
first, he was not willing that it should be so. He said: "I 
wish to live; I have just begun to live; all before has been 



78 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

preparative, and when I think of the things that must and will 
be done in the churches in Iowa, and in the West, during the 
next twenty years, oh, I long to be here and an actor in it!" 

Early in the winter it became evident that his work was 
done. " Accordingly he proceeded to set his house in order, 
and with calm and confiding faith, wore out the months of 
lingering decay, until the 7th of March when he obtained his 
release." 

In Iowa, March has always been the harvest month of the 
"reaper whose name is Death." "The workmen die but the 
work goes on." But who is to take Hutchinson's place? 
What fitter man than his comrade in arms, William Salter, 
up there at the Forks of the Maquoketa? 

"At a meeting of the Congregational Church and Society 
of Burlington, held at the usual place of worship on Sabbath 
afternoon, March 15, 1846, it was resolved that the church 
and society invite the Rev. William Salter to become pastor 
of the church." 

In his reminiscences Mr. Salter says, "I now preached 
farewell sermons at Andrew and Maquoketa and early in April 
removed to Burlington, not knowing the things that should 
befall me there." The things that befell him there covered a 
space of sixty-four years. He was installed December 30, 1846. 

This year still better church buildings were completed and 
dedicated. The first of the year was that at Dubuque. "It 
was of brick, 40 x 56, and cost $3,000. The date of the dedi- 
cation, according to Mr. Reed, was June 29. Doctor Holbrook 
however, in his recollections says: "We completed our new 
house of worship without debt, and at the dedication I preached 
a historical sermon, which was printed by request of some lead- 
ing citizens. It was delivered in April, 1846, four years after 
my settlement." 

Undoubtedly "The Recollections of a Nonagenarian" are 
at fault. There is pretty conclusive evidence that the "his- 
torical sermon" referred to was not the sermon of the dedi- 



" OTHER MEN LABORED," 1845-1849 79 

cation at all; and that the date of its delivery was not in April, 
but in March. On the title page of this sermon, a copy of which 
is in my possession, is a communication from citizens of 
Dubuque dated March 24 in which they speak of their pleasure 
in listening to the " Anniversary Discourse, delivered in the 
Congregational Church, Sunday, the 22d inst." Without 
much doubt the correct date is that given by Mr. Reed. Any- 
how the Dubuque people were in their new building, free from 
debt in the early part of 1846. So also later this year, the 
Denmark people were comfortably housed. Writing to the 
Home Missionary Mr. Turner said: 

Our house of worship is 63 x 45. We have been long engaged in build- 
ing it, for we can obtain means only as we earn them. One man, a com- 
mon farmer, has built nearly one-third of what has been done. His time 
and every possible means he could acquire has been devoted to it for almost 
two years. I speak much of a house of worship; you do not know how 
I feel about it. For almost sixteen years I have preached in something 
but little better than a barn. One cause of my poor health has been my 
preaching in the confined air of our present place of worship. It is almost 
the height of my worldly ambition to be permitted to preach in a com- 
fortable house. 

When Father Turner made this report, he did not expect 
that the house would be finished for several months, but Mr. 
Epps, who had done so much already, said it should be finished 
at once if it took his farm. The dedication was July 8, and 
the building cost about $4,000. 

Later in the year, a church building costing about $6,000 
was dedicated at Burlington. Of this Mr. Salter says : 

It is now nearly four years since the foundations of this house were 
laid. In the meanwhile, varied feelings of hope, anxiety, and despair 
have at times filled the breasts of the church, and taunts and reproaches 
have reached us from the world. By the completion of our church, which 
is very neat and pleasant, our cause is placed on a firmer and more prom- 
ising basis. 

I was installed pastor of the church and society on the 30th of December. 
The exercises of the occasion were extremely interesting, and a good im- 
pression seems to have been made by them upon the community. 



80 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

The churches organized this year are, Old Man's Creek 
(Welsh), Ottumwa, Big Woods (Anamosa), and Colony 
(Colesburg). 

Mr. Reed's account of the Ottumwa organization is as fol- 
lows: 

In 1843, Ottumwa had no existence, and the Sac and Fox Indians owned 
the soil. Mr. Spaulding's parish included Agency City, Ottumwa, Eddy- 
ville, and Oskaloosa, and during his first year he preached at twenty-three 
points in his field, and once at the New Indian Agency, one mile east of 
Des Moines. He organized a church of four members at Agency City, 
May 10, 1844. The only surviving member of this church in 1858 was 
Patsy, a slave who had been set at liberty by General Street who was in 
command at the Agency. 

The Anamosa church began its history under the title: "The Congre- 
gational Church of Big Woods," taking its name from a large body of 
timber on the Wapsipinecon. As early as 1840, there was quite a settle- 
ment here, and Rev. Thomas P. Emerson ministered to the people, and at 
least partially organized a little church. But the work came to an end, 
because, as the records say: "One of the emissaries of Satan raised a 
slanderous report against Mr. Emerson which entirely destroyed his 
influence. [A committee of the Association after careful examination, 
gave him complete vindication.] 

No further attempt to organize a church was made until 1844, when 
Rev. E. Alden, Jr., of the Iowa Band, visited Big Woods and preached at 
one or two points in the neighborhood. Through his agency, a church 
was organized, but, in consequence of the incongruity of the materials of 
which it was composed, it made no progress, and at the end of less than two 
years, it was dissolved. 

In the spring of 1846, Rev. Alfred Wright appeared upon 
the scene. "He found a few Presbyterians desirous of enter- 
ing into church relations." These, to the number of six, met 
at the house of Mr. Wright, to take the initial steps for the 
organization. Strange to say this company, Presbyterians 
every one of them, including the minister, resolved to organize 
a Congregational church, concluding that the congregational 
form of church government would perhaps be better adapted 
to the region, and the church would perhaps be better supplied 
with the ordinances of the gospel if Congregational rather than 



"OTHER MEN LABORED," 1845-1849 81 

Presbyterian. In view of these considerations they were more 
than willing to adopt the Congregational mode. The record 
states moreover, that " One of the members, a leading man, 
had a little before attended a meeting of the General Associa- 
tion of Iowa, and was fully satisfied that a Congregational 
church would do for the West, and especially for Big Woods." 
The church continued the original title until 1854, when it 
was changed to "The Congregational Church of Christ at 
Anamosa." Mr. Wright served the church as pastor for seven 
years. 

This year Denmark came to self-support, but largely at the 
expense of the pastor, for his salary, all told, is cut down to 
$300.00. 

One of the standing conundrums of our Congregational 
Iowa history is: "How much Home Missionary aid did the 
Denmark church receive?" Brother Adams says $700; 
Julius A. Reed says $266. The total amount received from the 
Society was $1,466, but $1,200 of this amount came to Father 
Turner as remuneration for his services as Agent of the Home 
Missionary Society. For sixteen months he was a missionary 
of the Society and received for that service $266 which is the 
amount Mr. Reed counts as given by the Society to the 
Denmark church. I am inclined to think that the whole 
amount, $1,466, should be charged to the church, for even 
with that aid, the pastor's support was pitifully small. In 
1842 the church's part in the pastor's support was only $200; 
in 1843, $250; in 1844, $200 again. These are the figures of 
Mr. Reed. 

Within sixteen months after coming to self-support, the 
church was in arrears a whole year, and Mr. Turner was obliged 
to borrow money to support his family. Thinking that dis- 
satisfaction with him might be the occasion of this slow pay 
and no pay at all, he resigned. This brought the church to 
their feet, and, in a manner, to his feet. The vote requesting 
him to remain, was practically unanimous, there being only 

7 



82 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

two opposing votes. One man, pro-slavery in sentiment, 
accused Father Turner of calling "one of God's institutions 
hard names." 

The pay of the people, however, was largely in "produce" 
and promises. Mr. Reed says of this time: "His people 
made an effort to pay arrearages and pledged themselves to 
give notes thereafter if they could not pay the money when 
due. He once related to me with his peculiar amused smile, 
how the church treasurer, who had paid him and also the 
janitor some of these notes, brought to him one which the 
janitor could not collect, and wished to exchange with him for 
one that he could collect. He made the exchange and enjoyed 
it." This is no reflection on the Denmark church of the early 
times. Their burdens were very great. 

We had our first glimpse of Bellevue on that Sunday of June, 
1836, when Aratus Kent preached the first sermons ever 
preached in the community. In early times, the town was 
notorious for its lawlessness. It was the rendezvous of horse- 
thieves, counterfeiters, and all sorts of disreputables. To 
clean out this element the better citizens were obliged to 
resort to arms, and so bloody and fatal was the encounter, that 
the incident was called the "Bellevue War." 

Of course, this was one of Father Emerson's appointments. 
Holbrook from Dubuque supplied occasionally, once having 
in his audience a prisoner, in chains, condemned to death for 
murder, and Mr. Holbrook improved the occasion. Doctor 
Salter preached here the last Sabbath of 1843, one of his audi- 
tors commenting; "It was a divilish sermon." In 1843, 
Brother Keith, Salter's successor at Maquoketa, made arrange- 
ments to supply here one-third of the time. Then came 
William Coleman. In him the brethren had a problem for 
he came from that heretical school, Oberlin! But ministers 
were scarce and they gave him welcome, just as we have wel- 
comed many a good heretic since. The Bellevue Church is 
one of Brother Coleman's monuments. While here, so tra- 



" OTHER MEN LABORED," 1845-1849 83 

dition has it, Governor Briggs applied to him to put in proper 
form a Thanksgiving Proclamation, and he did it, of course, 
he did it. 

The year 1847, marked the beginning of our work for the 
Germans in Iowa. There was need enough for it. Prairie 
La Porte had its name changed to Guttemburg. No reader 
needs to be told the occasion for the change. The river towns 
were filling up with Germans. 

Our first German missionary, Peter Fleury, from the Canton 
of Saas, Switzerland, scholar, linguist, traveler, evangelical 
and evangelistic preacher, was the man for the service. He 
made his first missionary journeys on horseback, map and 
compass in hand, and everywhere found the Germans a scat- 
tered flock without a shepherd. 

He reported: " I preach every Sabbath morning at Dubuque, 
and every afternoon or evening in the country. Sunday even- 
ings I wished to spend in different families, but the people are 
so poor that I could not find lodgings for myself nor shelter 
for my horse. In my wanderings I met a nice looking boy 
about twelve years of age who could speak English pretty 
well. I asked if there were Germans living near. 'Yes, 
in yonder wood are many families.' 'Of what religion are 
they?' 'I do not know.' 'Of what religion are you?' 'I 
do not know.' 'Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ?' 'I 
never heard his name.' 'Do you never pray?' 'No, I never 
learnt it.' " 

December 28 of this year, Iowa comes to the dignity of state- 
hood with Iowa City as capital. This was part of our singing 
geography lesson in my boyhood: "Iowa, Iowa City, on the 
Iowa River." One of our missionaries, name withheld, report- 
ing to the "Home Missionary" in 1847 furnishes an unhand- 
some photograph of our first legislature: "The first legislature 
of the state of Iowa adjourned on the 25th of February, after 
having been in session nearly three months. If what every- 
body says is to be believed, it was a continued scene of angry 



84 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

turmoil, selfish ambition, mean intrigue, low vulgarity and 
open dissipation. Such is the testimony of all observers." 
Perhaps this missionary set the ethical standards for the 
legislature beyond the reach of practical attainment. 

Iowa College, still "a disembodied spirit," sought now a 
" local habitation." "Select first the best location," said the 
wise men of the East. At the June meeting of the College 
Association, Davenport, beautiful for situation, fairly central 
to the constituency of the college in those days, was selected, 
" provided the citizens would raise $1400 and secure certain 
specified grounds for a location." At this meeting each mem- 
ber of the Association present pledged himself to raise, if 
possible, $100 among eastern friends or elsewhere. It was at 
this meeting that J. J. Hill placed a dollar on the table saying, 
"Now appoint your trustees to take care of that dollar for 
Iowa College." Davenport citizens pledge $1,362 cash, and 
thirteen lots. The trustees were instructed to plan and erect 
a building, " which shall be a permanent college building, in 
good taste, and which when enclosed, shall not exceed in 
cost, the sum of $2,000." Trustees and members of the 
College Association pledged themselves to make up any defi- 
ciency in the construction of the building up to the amount 
of $600. 

This year, churches organized were, the Flint Creek (Welsh), 
Bellevue, and the Dubuque (German). 

In 1848, ten years after the organization of the first church, 
the churches numbered forty, and the ordained ministers 
thirty-two, with three licentiates, and the total church mem- 
bership was 1,131. The General Association, organized in 
1840, was divided into two minor associations, the Denmark, 
and the Northern Iowa, the last named in the territory north 
of the Iowa, but, of course, bordering the Mississippi. 

Father Turner was still at Denmark, as he will be for twenty 
years more. What he was about just now, the following report 
will show: 



" OTHER MEN LABORED," 1845-1849 85 

A large proportion of our Congregation are professing Christians. The 
last revival left scarcely any adults who did not express a hope in Christ. 
We have in a circuit of some three or four miles from our meeting house, 
five places where we attend meetings regularly. Some of our members 
aid in conducting them, when I am not able to be there. I preached last 
week five times in the settlements around, besides preaching at home on 
the Sabbath. I have an appointment for tonight and tomorrow night, 
if I am able to attend. 

The church, the largest in the state, had a membership 
of 123. 

Reuben Gaylord was still at Danville where he was to be 
eight or nine years more. He gives us a realistic picture of the 
efforts of the pioneers to build the College. Under date of 
January 8, he writes of a journey to Davenport to attend a 
meeting of the trustees of Iowa College: 

I left home January 3. The mud was so deep I had to go on horseback. 
It turned cold and froze during the night, and in the morning I rode over 
to Bloomington which I reached about sunset. Stayed with Brother 
Robbins over night, and the next day had a cold ride to Davenport. Found 
Brothers Reed and Adams well. As not enough of trustees came together 
to make a quorum, we transacted no business, but adjourned to meet in 
the same place on the 16th of March. The college building we are erect- 
ing will be a very substantial one, and will look well. It is 36 x 55 feet. 
We are anxious to have it complete and ready for occupancy by October 
or November next. If we had the requisite funds, we might soon make 
this institution a center of influence. I promised to send up $10.00 toward 
meeting the present emergencies. The obligations of benevolence expand 
in importance daily. 

Oliver Emerson, the " Gospel Ranger" is now, as he has 
been for years, going up and down the river, on both sides of 
it, ministering to the people everywhere, and gathering them 
into churches, Congregational some of them, but many of 
them union churches. Just now he is residing at Sabula. 
He moved from Davenport to Sabula in 1841; then, from 1843 
to 1847, resided at De Witt, and then returned to Sabula, 
where he continued to reside until 1855. 

Just now, too, he is a missionary of the American Missionary 



86 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Association. He started out in 1841 under the auspices of 
the American Home Missionary Society, but in 1843, he got 
the idea, as so many others did, that this Society was in com- 
plicity with slavery because it would not refuse aid to churches 
in which there were slaveholders and men with pro-slavery 
principles. He refused the help of this society, and for two years 
lived almost at the point of starvation, depending for support 
on people as poor as himself; then the American Missionary 
Association came to his relief. 

His own comment upon this incident of his life is: " When I 
became a Home Missionary, I was dissatisfied with the position 
of the Society on that subject. I at once began laboring with 
the Society to induce them to require their missionaries, espe- 
cially in the slave states, to treat slaveholding as they did 
other gross public offences. Failing in this, in July, 1843, I 
renounced my commission, continuing my work as best I 
could without missionary aid. In 1846 I first received aid 
from the American Missionary Association, or the Union 
Missionary Society, as it was then called. I was nearly, or 
quite, the first Home Missionary receiving aid from that 
quarter. This relation continued until after slavery was 
dead, and the American Home Missionary Society had taken 
the position I had long before begged them to take." 

John C. Holbrook was still at Dubuque, as he had been for 
nearly six years. Of course, he was very busy, preaching, 
holding evangelistic meetings, writing for the Home Mis- 
sionary, the New York Observer, the Boston Recorder, the 
Independent, etc. 

Eighteen hundred and forty-seven was the year of the great 
revival, as a result of which there were sixty accessions to the 
church on confession, and nineteen by letter. This year, too, 
the church, having received aid from the Home Missionary 
Society for six years, and to the amount of $1,200 came to self- 
support, and during the year contributed $76.83 to this Society. 
$118.55 to the American Board, and $40.00 to the Bible Society. 



DR. F. G. WOODWORTH 

fen 



MISS MARY C. COLLINS 




DR. HENRY S. DeFOREST 
H. PAUL DOUGLASS H. W. PORTER 

IOWANS IN A. M. A. WORK 



" OTHER MEN LABORED," 1845-1849 87 

Ephraim Adams was at Davenport, fostering the church of 
thirty-nine members, and the college that was about to be, 
and waking up to the fact that Davenport was likely to be- 
come a German city. 

Harvey Adams was still at Farmington, rejoicing in his 
new house of worship, 32 x 40, costing $1,450, dedicated 
January 26. The church numbered sixty-six, twenty-eight 
having been received on confession, within a year, as the 
fruits of a revival. 

Ebenezer Alden was still at Tipton, but he was about to 
drop out and return to New England. His church numbered 
twenty-one. 

James J. Hill was still at Garnavillo. He had just dedicated 
a little church building, Mr. Holbrook of Dubuque preaching 
the dedicatory sermon, December 5, 1847. His parish took in 
Sodom and Gomorrah, about the toughest places in Iowa, on 
the borders of the Indian reservation. He tells of an Indian 
gashed by the blow of a tomahawk, in a drunken frolic, who 
refused to have the stitches taken in the wound, saying, 
"They sew moccasins, not men." 

Sodom and Gomorrah, according to Hon. James 0. Crosby, 
of Garnavillo, were two rival saloons. The location was about 
three miles west of Monona, on the military road from Prairie 
du Chien to Fort Atkinson. Eliphalet Price, however, says: 
" Within a mile of the village of Monona may still be seen the 
ruins of the once flourishing and populous village of Sodom. " 
At any rate, wherever the exact location is, this year, even here, 
in Sodom and Gomorrah, a little church of sixteen members 
was organized. The Garnavillo church at this time numbered 
twenty-three. 

Daniel Lane was still at Keosauqua, writing in every report : 
"Our meeting-house is still unfinished," "our meeting-house 
is still unfinished," but he reports a church of thirty-two 
members, and a good degree of religious interest in the com- 
munity. 



88 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Alden B. Robbins was, of course, still at Muscatine, for he 
was there to stay for a lifetime. Reviewing the four years of 
his pastorate then past, he says that he is grieved that so 
little has been accomplished. He reported a comfortable 
sanctuary and thirty members. 

Burlington, William Salter pastor, had grown to a member- 
ship of fifty-one, and before the year ended, twenty-one more 
were added. 

At the opening of the year 1848, Erastus Ripley was still 
at Bentonsport. He reviews with deep humility his three 
years of service here. He had built up the church to a member- 
ship of twenty-six. A neighboring pastor reported: "An 
interesting revival of religion is in progress at Bentonsport. 
Brother Ripley is heartily engaged in the good work, and his 
church is greatly quickened." But in June of this year, the 
Minutes of the State Association report: "Bentonsport 
vacant" and "E. Ripley, Professor-elect in Iowa College." 

Benjamin Spaulding reported from Ottumwa: "Four years 
have passed since I came to this place. Then there were but 
fourteen buildings of any kind, and these, with two exceptions 
were built of logs. Now, we have quite a respectable village 
of brick and frame buildings, many of which are two stories 
high, and a population of two or three hundred. When I came 
here there was but one individual who was a Congregationalist, 
and he soon after left the place. After laboring for about two 
years, we succeeded in forming a church with eight members. 
Four others have been added since its organization, so that it 
now consists of twelve. Three other churches have been 
formed as a result of my labors." Mr. Spaulding had just 
returned from a visit to the East, for which he affected a 
degree of contempt. He says: " The shady hills of New Eng- 
land and Pennsylvania seemed dead and dismal after a three 
years* residence on the sunny plains of Iowa; and the Con- 
necticut and the Schuylkill uninviting, when compared with 
the Des Moines." 



" OTHER MEN LABORED," 1845-1849 89 

E. B. Turner, starting at Cascade in 1843, was now at 
Colesburg, which had attained a membership of eighteen and 
he had just organized a church of five members at Yankee 
Settlement to which he ministered half the time. 

In this fashion we locate the Patriarchs and the Band, at 
the beginning of the second decade, January, 1848. The 
" others" were distributed as follows: " William L. Coleman 
was at Belle vue and Andrew; W. A. Keith was at Maquoketa; 
Robert Stuart had taken Mr. Turner's place at Cascade; 
Alfred Wright had just closed his first year in the Big Woods, 
Anamosa and other places; W. A Thompson was at Fairfield; 
Simeon Waters was at Mount Pleasant; Charles Burnham 
was at Brighton and Clay; A. L. Leonard was supplying 
Columbus City; George B. Hitchcock was at Eddyville and 
Oskaloosa, but he was reaching out in his missionary activities 
to Knoxville, and Newton, and even to Des Moines, and he 
was crying aloud for missionaries for these regions beyond. 

This year, the Home Missionary Society made a permanent 
beginning at Fort Des Moines, by sending out Rev. T. Bird. 
This was the beginning of what is now the great Central 
Presbyterian church of Des Moines. We Congregationalists, 
through the Home Missionary Society had a hand in that 
good work. 

Peter Fleury was doing splendid work among the Germans at 
Dubuque and the regions round about, a church being organ- 
ized at Dubuque in December of 1847, and another at Garna- 
villo, February 15 of this year, 1848. The Dubuque Ger- 
man church began with thirty-five members, but within six 
months, the number increased to sixty-eight. 

The Garnavillo church began with six members and found 
a pastor of its own number. This man was "a schoolmaster, 
possessing childlike faith, and a deep experimental knowledge 
of the Word of God, has a good education, and a great talent 
for teaching. At the last meeting of the Association, he pre- 
sented himself for a license to preach the gospel. The exami- 



90 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

nation turned out to the perfect satisfaction of the Association. 
He now preaches in two different places in Clayton County 
and as soon as he can afford to purchase a horse, he will preach 
in other neighboring settlements." This was the introduction 
of Carl V. Hess to our Iowa work, and, in due time, his two 
sons, Carl and Henry followed in his footsteps. 

" There was a man sent from God whose name was John" 
Wesley Windsor; and his sons were John and William; and they 
followed in his footsteps. Mr. Windsor was born at Portsea, 
England, in 1802. In early manhood, for eleven years, he 
was midshipman in the English navy, and while in service, 
was once in battle with our frigate the " Constitution." Reach- 
ing New York in 1820, he was converted under the preaching 
of Summerfield, at the John St. Methodist church. Returning 
to England, he became a lay preacher among the Independents 
at Petersfield. In the spring of 1844, he came to Iowa and 
settled on a claim on the little Maquoketa river, but in 1845 
moved to Dubuque. Mr. Holbrook, writing early in 1848, 
takes up the narrative and says: " For some time past, one of 
our deacons has been holding meetings at Durango, and much 
interest has been manifested. During the summer I spent one 
Sabbath there; we held our meetings in the open air, in 'the 
timber/ where for the 'first time, that forest sanctuary' 
resounded with the voice of prayer, and songs of praise. Deep 
feeling was manifested by many individuals. " 

Mr. Windsor continues the story: 

Shortly after Brother Holbrook came out from Dubuque and spent 
near two weeks preaching every evening and on the Sabbath. As a result 
of these efforts, God has graciously pleased to bring many precious souls 
into his fold. On the 17th of January, 1848, Brother Holbrook proceeded 
to form the new converts, eighteen in number into a church. The serv- 
ices of that day will live in remembrance so long as reason retains its seat. 
There were fathers, mothers and children, presenting themselves to God, 
the gray-headed of sixty, and the young of fourteen; all of them previously 
non-professors; some had been avowed infidels; all of them a short time 
before totally destitute of moral restraint; some of them notorious for vice 
and profligacy. 



" OTHER MEN LABORED/' 1845-1849 91 

One of those uniting that day was a man known in the neighborhood 
as "The Pet Bear." He was one of the early pioneers, a real backwoods- 
man, possessing a powerful frame, was just in the prime of life, a hard 
drinker, and one of the most profane men I ever knew, and a perfect slave 
to a passionate temper, that not infrequently raged like a tornado. With 
him it was a word and a blow, often the last first. During the meetings, 
I turned out of my way one evening and stopped at his cabin door. I 
said to him: "We are having good meetings at the schoolhouse. We 
shall be glad to see you." Without giving him opportunity to reply, 
I bade him good evening. (He attended the meeting.) Early the next 
morning, one of the neighbors came to me and said, "Mr. Windsor, I wish 
you would go to see the Pet Bear. There is something the matter with 
him. He came home from the meeting last night, like a fury. He sat 
down in a chair before the fire, and he has been there all night. He is 
weeping like a child. As I was passing, his wife came out and whispered 
to me to ask you to come and see him." I hastened to his cabin, and 
there found him sitting with his head bowed on his hands, between his 
knees, and the tears trickling down and falling on the hearth-stone. I 
drew my chair up to him and asked him kindly to tell me the cause of his 
distress. After a pause he looked up into my face, and, with a look and 
emphasis I shall never forget, he said: "Oh, Mr. Windsor, I am the most 
wicked and wretched sinner in the world, and I don't know what to do; 
can you tell me?" I spent nearly the whole day with him. He became 
calm and listened like a little child. In a few days he felt by joyful experi- 
ence that the blood of Jesus could cleanse even such a desperate sinner 
as he was. His wife told me that after I left on the preceding evening, 
she expected an outburst of temper, but instead of this, he turned to her 
and said, "Wife, get your things on, and we'll go to meeting." Then 
began a perfect torrent of oaths against himself, occasionally speaking to 
himself, "Spew it out, Pet, it is the last time! Get rid of it, for I mean to 
cut a new set of house logs" — meaning that he intended to begin a new 
course of life. On his way home, she said, his oaths made her tremble; 
it seemed as though he was possessed of seven devils. As he reached his 
cabin door, he said; "There, wife, it is all out!" And, with such an expres- 
sion as she had never heard from him before, he cried out, "O God, help 
me!" He took his seat before the fire, scarcely altering his position dur- 
ing the whole night. 

We might write a whole volume of obituaries and then not 
mention all the beloved dead of our Congregational household. 
Only a few home goings can be reported in this book. So far 
the Band had been broken only by the death of Horace Hut- 



92 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

chinson, but now, Mrs. A. B. Robbins, came to her translation 
with scarcely more than an hour's notice. Mr. Robbins can 
best tell the story: 

With a beloved household scattered, and a heart almost crushed by my 
affliction, I forward my report. A little more than six weeks ago, we 
moved from a contracted and unhealthy dwelling into a convenient and 
airy abode that we had hoped for many years to call our home. On the Sab- 
bath, July 14, with an unusual degree of health, and spirits, my wife 
attended church and Sabbath-school. On Monday she had a slight 
diarrhoea which did not yield to the remedies applied until Tuesday after- 
noon. At that time I gave up all anxiety about her, and leaving her in 
the care of two or three ladies, and a physician, I went down to procure 
some one to spend the night. I was detained by a violent thunder storm, 
and was gone an hour and a half. Upon my return, the first and fearful 
salutation from my dear wife was, "Alden, I am dying with the cholera!" 

With only about one and a half hour's notice, I was called to part with 
a wife, precious to the heart, as a wife is only to a missionary. She died 
in wonderful peace, saying that it was "sweet to have a Saviour to trust 
in, in such an hour." I think I can bow to the will of God; but my soul is 
overwhelmed. The Lord knoweth, but I can see no reason, but my own 
guilt, why one, so much respected and beloved and so Decessary to my 
usefulness, as it seemed to me, should be thus suddenly taken. With 
my three motherless ones, of two, four and six years, I am staying about 
among kind and willing friends, as yet unable to decide what to do. 

This is recorded, but a hundred, and a hundred of like experi- 
ences will not be told. 

At the meeting of the State Association held in June of this 
year, resolutions, samples of many of the sort, are passed, con- 
demning "slavery as a sin against God, a curse to the master, 
and a grievous wrong to the slave"; and advising the with- 
drawing of fellowship from slave-holding churches; and also 
condemning the Mexican war then in progress. 

Nor did the Association forget Iowa College. After a 
statement of the condition and prospects of the school that 
was to be, it was : 

"Resolved, that we hereby express our gratitude to God 
for the success that has hitherto attended this enterprise. 
"Resolved that we commit this object to the notice of the 



"OTHER MEN LABORED," 1845-1849 93 

churches, and bespeak their sympathies, prayers, and liberal 
contributions in its behalf." 

The school opened in November of this year, 1848, under the 
charge of Erastus Ripley, professor of languages, with a 
salary of $500. 

" There were appropriate opening exercises, including an 
address and a dedicatory prayer. It was a windy, wintry day. 
Not many were present," but it was a day of great significance 
to Iowa, to Iowa Congregationalism, and the kingdom of God, 
the world around. 

Now we come to the year 1849; and from this time on, we 
must reel off the "years as a tale that is told" in rapid succes- 
sion. Of course, the "Forty-niners" were in evidence, even 
in Iowa, passing through in droves to the gold fields of Califor- 
nia, and some who were just beginning to take root here, 
tore up and passed on. 

The state limits now reached the Missouri on the West, and 
settlements began to appear on the Missouri slope, and there 
was heard, though in the distance, the rumble of a coming 
railway train. A third association was formed, called the 
"Des Moines River Association," this in part by way of 
prophecy of other churches to be organized in the region, and 
partly for the better accommodation of the churches already 
organized. 

Iowa College was making for itself a still larger and larger 
place in the hearts of the men and women of the churches. 
At the meeting of the State Association, they accepted the 
offer of the New York Independent, recently established, "of 
a portion of its avails in this state for the benefit of Iowa 
College; and we will endeavor to obtain as many subscribers 
for the paper as possible, and make returns to Professor 
Ripley of said college." 

"A subscription paper was circulated by Rev. D. Lane, to 
obtain subscriptions for the college, and the sum of $377.45 
was raised. Rev. Mr. Williams offered the concluding prayer 



94 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

in behalf of the college. " Let those of the present day remem- 
ber that thus the foundations of this institution were laid! 
Historically, anyhow, Iowa College is a Congregational school. 
No other ecclesiastical body has such records concerning the 
college; and this was only the beginning. 

Churches were gathered this year at Le Claire, SherriU's 
Mound (German), Guttenburg (German), and Warren. 

Of course, Mr. Hess was in charge of the new German work 
at Guttenburg in connection with his work at Garnavillo and 
Farmersburg. Peter Fleury did a splendid work among the 
Germans in Dubuque, and in all that region, but it was too 
soon ended, and he returned to Switzerland. His place was 
supplied at once by the coming of Rev. J. B. Madoulet, his 
field being Dubuque, SherrhTs Mound and all the rest of the 
German world in that region. 

Just then Durango was vacant, for Father Windsor had 
taken Brother Keith's place at Maquoketa, and Mr. Keith 
had gone to Tipton to take the place of Alden of the Band, 
who had returned to New England to be no more seen in Iowa. 
For thirty-five years, beginning in 1850, he was pastor of the 
First Congregational Church of Marshfield, Massachusetts, 
and was pastor or pastor emeritus up to the time of his death, 
January 4, 1899. Daniel Webster was one of Mr. Alden's 
parishioners, and he preached the great statesman's funeral 
sermon in 1852. 

Rev. A. B. Dilly was now in Professor Ripley's place at 
Bentonsport; and William P. Apthorp, the first of the Denmark 
preachers, as we have seen, was now in charge at Oskaloosa. 
One of the events of the year, was the dedication of the meeting- 
house at Colesburg, October 21. "The weather was fine, and 
the house was filled to overflowing. Many said it was the 
happiest day of their lives. After having so long occupied 
the slab seats of the log school-house, they were ready to 
appreciate the new comforts and conveniences. 

The minister was also somewhat prepared to "appreciate a 



"OTHER MEN LABORED," 1845-1849 95 

convenient pulpit and tight walls and a good roof, after 
having preached two years from the back of a chair, or the 
crown of a hat, and being often obliged to stand with his notes 
in his hand to keep them from blowing away, or to dodge the 
rain as it poured through from the leaky roof." 

The year 1850 records important associational changes. 
The name Northern Iowa Association, dropped out, and the 
territory was divided into the Davenport and the Dubuque 
Associations, the last named reaching up to Monona in territory 
recently vacated by the Indians. The Monona church num- 
bered sixteen members, with Rev. A. M. Eastman pastor. 

Rev. Ozias Littlefield was at Garnavillo, taking the place 
of J. J. Hill, who, though a member of the Iowa Band, had 
deserted Iowa for a season. However, he was just across the 
river at Albany, Illinois, and he and his church were members 
of the Davenport Association. The Marion Church, organ- 
ized as Presbyterian in 1840, and reorganized as Congrega- 
tional, April 1, 1848, was now supplied by Rev. Bennet 
Robert, of whom we will hear more presently; and Presby- 
terian beginnings, with which Congregationalists had much 
to do, were being made at Cedar Rapids under the leadership 
of Rev. Williston Jones. Rev. S. D. Helms, dividing Mr. 
Coleman's field, was located at Cottonville; William A. West- 
ervelt at Crawfordsville and Washington; and Henry William 
Cobb, at Le Claire. Charles Burnham, who, it will be remem- 
bered was ordained by the General Association with Oliver 
Emerson, in 1841, and gave the charge to the seven of the 
Band ordained at Denmark in 1843, after a pastorate of nearly 
a decade at Brighton and Clay, leaving the work there in 
charge of Rev. F. A. Armstrong, struck out again for pioneer 
work, and found at Albia and Chariton, and the regions round 
about, "a broad field in which to sow the good seed." 

This was a good year for Iowa College. In the narrative of 
the state of religion, it is written: "The institution of learning 
at Davenport, which holds so dear a place in the hearts of those 



96 



THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 



who compose this body, has shared in the blessed results of 
one of the revivals above alluded to. Iowa College has been 
baptized in its infancy with the Holy Ghost." And "it was 
voted to recommend to the trustees to appoint an additional 
professor this fall, when a regular college class will be formed. 
Animating addresses were also made, by Rev. Messrs. E. 
Adams, Magoun, etc., etc., after which a subscription was 
circulated, and $450 raised. The wives also of the ministers, 
anxious to share in the enterprise of founding their college, 
resolved to raise $100, out of their own resources, and $70 was 
subscribed by fourteen who were present." 






Chaptek VI 
REACHING THE MISSOURI, 1850-1854 

In the early fifties the fullest tide of emigration was the 
westward flow into Southern Iowa, which at length met the 
tide sweeping up the Missouri. In Southeastern Iowa settle- 
ments were here and there, and as far west as Newton, Knox- 
ville, Fort Des Moines, and Winterset. 

This was preeminently the decade of the stage-coach and 
" prairie schooner." The dream of the streams of inland 
Iowa as highways of travel and commerce was a vanishing 
dream, but it still lingered and persisted. Mr. N. H. Parker 
in his "Iowa as It Is," as late as the middle of the decade, 
declared: "Some of these streams are navigable for a great 
distance, and the day is drawing nigh when the quiet of these 
banks shall be broken, and the shrill whistle of the heavily 
laden steamer reverberate from shore to shore. The untold 
power of some of these waters will soon be utilized for mechani- 
cal purposes, and the thunder and clatter of ten thousand 
wheels will break upon the solitude which now echoes only 
the harvest song or notes of the sweet warblers of the forest." 
The prophecies continued: "The Des Moines Valley is 
traversed by one of the most beautiful rivers on earth; four 
hundred miles in length; capable of floating steamers a part 
of the year, and affording water power to any desirable extent; 
with a landscape of great and charming variety, and possess- 
ing a soil scarcely equaled for fertility, perhaps in the world; 
why should it not be thronged with inhabitants? It is the 
center of the 'Mesopotamia of the West' in a more important 
sense than that of its position. Let but the iron horse 
s 97 



98 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

traverse the whole length of the valley, and the silver stream 
will be skirted with cities and villages in as great continuity 
as on the Bosphorus; meanwhile its agricultural and manufac- 
tured exports will amount to many millions of dollars 
annually." 

The earliest Gentile pioneers of the Missouri slope reached 
the new land by the Missouri River, but the Mormons of 
1846 from their rendezvous at Nauvoo, Illinois, trailed their 
way across the state, marking the pathway for the Gentiles 
following, and in this westward movement of permanent 
settlement on the Missouri, the stage-coach and the schooner 
are in evidence and indispensable. Two lines of coaches, 
sometimes six and seven coaches in a bunch, to accommodate 
the crowds, run daily from Burlington to Oskaloosa. 

Mr. Parker, no doubt in fancy sketches in part, but for 
" substance of doctrine' ' correct, reports some of the stage- 
coach comments and observations as follows: — "An old man 
from Maine is made to say: 'Well, this is e'en-a-jest the garden 
of Eden.' Another exclaims: 'Bless my stars, mother, look 
at that. Don't that make your mouth water? These corn- 
fields look as if fifty years old; not a stump nor a stone. Look 
at that fellow plowing. His horse walks as if he had nothing 
behind him. What a furrow he rolls up! Soft as a garden 
plat, rich as a stable yard.' ' I'll give it up/ says another, 
'I have been looking all the way from Paris, in Canada, through 
Ohio, Illinois, and Wisconsin for something better, and it has 
grown better all the way: but better than this is no use; 
I'll give it up/ And another ventures the remark: 'These 
lands will be worth ten dollars an acre in five years. Ten years 
will make this country equal to the most favored sections 
of New York, Pennsylvania or Ohio.' 'Now ladies and 
gentlemen,' says an old stranger — he had been ten years in 
Iowa — 'If you are so taken with this, just hold on. Don't 
cry out until you get up about Oskaloosa, and around there; 
up in Mahaska, Marion, Warren, Lucas, Monroe, Madison, 



}\ 



r: 




REACHING THE MISSOURI, 1850-1854 99 

and so on, clear out to Council Bluffs; richer land for farming 
is not anywhere else on this continent.'" 

Our Pilgrims began to reach the Missouri in 1848. A colony 
from Ohio, Deacon George B. Gaston the leading spirit, 
John Todd a young preacher on a tour of inspection with them, 
arrived at Civil Bend in the autumn of this year. They 
came by the Ohio River, the Mississippi, and the Missouri, 
as far as St. Joseph, but, being in a hurry, they finished the 
journey overland from that point. Deacon Gaston had been 
West before. For four years, 1840-44, he was the government 
farmer among the Pawnee Indians of Nebraska. He then 
saw that this was soon to be a white man's country, and there 
came to him an inspiration to found another Oberlin out here in 
this western land. So he returned to Ohio, interested a few 
people in the enterprise, and this small beginning at Civil Bend 
was the beginning of the fulfillment of his dream. He found 
Mr. Todd, a graduate of Oberlin, pastor at Clarkesville, and 
said to him : " Come, go with us. I can't say much about salary, 
but while I live you shall live." Twenty-five years later, 
at Mr. Gaston's funeral, his pastor said: " Brother Gaston 
always kept his word." Remaining now only a few days, 
Mr. Todd on horseback took the Mormon trail through 
Iowa back to Ohio, but returned with his family for permanent 
residence in 1850. 

Meanwhile, in the fall of 1849, this Pilgrim band from Ohio, 
with others from other parts, Baptists and Methodists, some 
of them, organized the Union Church of Civil Bend. Of course 
it was essentially Congregational, for they, a company of 
laymen, without the sanction of a preacher even, or any out- 
side authority, adopted their own creed and covenant, and 
conducted all the affairs of the church in a thoroughly demo- 
cratic fashion. 

Another Pilgrim Band arrived in 1849. A few Congrega- 
tional families from Illinois, starting for California, were 
stopped on the banks of the Missouri opposite the mouth 



100 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

of the Big Platte River; as a result, in due time, the Florence 
church. 

Civil Bend had an unhallowed christening. It was given 
in derision by the roughs of the various whiskey cabins along 
the "Big Muddy," these dens bearing popularly such unsanc- 
tified names as "Devil's Den," " Hell's Kitchen," and the like. 
The Civil Bend people accepted the title given them by their 
neighbors, and the name still clings to the community. 

Mr. Todd took up his permanent residence in Iowa July 
1, 1850, and at once began his missionary labors, which 
soon extended from Civil Bend to Florence, Trader's Point, 
Honey Creek, Cutler's Camp, High Creek, and Linden, 
Missouri. 

It sometimes rains in the Missouri Bottom; it did in the 
summer of 1851. Mr. Todd reported: "The waters of the 
river, the waters of the uplands, and the 'waters above the 
firmament' combined to drive the people from Civil Bend. 
Streams from the Bluffs swept down in torrents, bearing 
away bridges, fences and all before them. Five miles of 
water spread out between us and the highlands. Sloughs 
were waded to go to meeting where horses would mire 
down; abundance of buffalo fish were speared with pitchforks 
amid the tall grass. Mosquitoes, enough to dim the sun and 
moon, chimed in to sing the requiem of our hopes in that land 
of promise." But the real land of promise was not far away, 
within easy reach, a lovely spot on the high, dry and fertile 
plains, soon to be called Tabor. 

As the pilgrim bands were reaching the Missouri, and it 
looked as if there might, in time, be settlements here and there 
clear across the state, and possibly churches would be needed 
some day, the Superintendent of Home Missions planned a 
tour of inspection, extending from the Des Moines to the 
Missouri. Eddyville was the point of departure. The Eddy- 
ville pastor, George B. Hitchcock, was Mr. Reed's companion 
on the trip. The date of their departure was October 14, 



REACHING THE MISSOURI, 1850-1854 101 

1850; their equipments a two-horse wagon, with provisions, 
cooking utensils, and everything necessary for camping 
out. 

They took the old Mormon trail of 1846. They found in 
Lucas County great rich rolling prairies, of no account as yet, 
so far from wood and water, but they also came across bodies 
of timber with good settlements on the Chariton, Cedar, and 
White Breast Rivers. Chariton then had fourteen houses, and 
was favored with an occasional visit from Brother Burnham 
of Albia. Decatur County they characterized as well watered, 
and a portion of it " well timbered." No other sort of country 
was fit for settlement. At Garden Grove, they found thirty- 
five Mormon families, and only five or six families that were 
not Mormons. Lamoni, Decatur County, is to-day the head- 
quarters of the Josephite branch of the Mormon Church. 

The next settlement, forty miles away, was Pisgah, on the 
West Grand River, "a desolate place, once occupied by the 
Mormons, stumps and old cabins the most prominent objects." 
Here were twenty-five Mormon and eight or ten Gentile 
families. 

Of Taylor and Ringgold Counties Mr. Reed wrote: "I 
have been informed that in the southern tier of townships 
there is very little timber, and it is doubtful whether land 
enough will be sold in them for fifty years to pay for surveying 
them." No land but timber land is any good in a new country 
in advance of the railroad. That same " worthless" land 
within fifty years was selling for seventy-five dollars and 
one hundred dollars per acre. 

The next settlement was Johnson's, thirty-five miles west 
of Pisgah. This was on the East Nodaway. " Johnson, 
was building a mill, and his house was full of workmen. We 
took our supper out of doors after dark. There were two 
rooms in the cabin. Fifteen men and boys slept in one of 
them; we took our chance upon the floor of the other, while 
the family, six in number, filled the beds." 



102 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

It was forty miles to the next settlement at Indiantown, 
the Lewis of to-day, on the East Nishnabotana. Timber 
here was abundant, and "here will be a large settlement," 
so the agent prophesied. "We spent the Sabbath at this 
place," he said, "ina Mormon family. They said they had 
a Bible but did not show it." At Omar's Grove, sixteen 
miles further on, they fell in with "an Ironside Baptist family 
and a disaffected Mormon." At Cutler's Camp on Silver 
Creek, there were "twenty-five disaffected Mormon families. 
They reject the tithing and spiritual wife systems, and will 
not emigrate to Salt Lake." 

The Missouri Bottom was on fire as they entered it, the 
flames flashing up thirty feet, an "Ocean of fire." 

At Civil Bend they ascertain that there is a church of nine- 
teen members, Rev. John Todd the pastor. For several years, 
Civil Bend was said to have been the southwest terminus 
of the oldest railroad in the state — "the Underground Rail- 
road." 

"The families from Illinois," reported by Mr. Todd at 
Florence, are given by Mr. Reed "a Connecticut man, with 
his children and their families, numbering eighteen." They 
formed the nucleus of the church, which later in the year, Dec. 
1, was organized by Mr. Todd. "It was one of the very few 
places in Western Iowa where, in 1850, the gospel was not 
crowded out by Mormonism." 

Passing on through Trader's Point, at Kanesville, they 
were at the headquarters of Mormonism for those en 
route for Salt Lake. There were one hundred and sixty log 
houses, and a population of one thousand, all Mormons with 
exception of about fifty persons. Here they spent the Sabbath 
which was not a Sabbath to them. Mr. Reed comments: 
"I saw no indication of piety among them. Morality among 
them is at a low ebb. The sale and use of intoxicating liquors, 
by Mormons in good standing, is common. Profaneness is 
common. They are charged with stealing, and much more 




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REACHING THE MISSOURI, 1850-1854 103 

of the same sort." He estimates about five thousand Mor- 
mons in Western Iowa. 

They returned by nearly the same route, branching off, 
however, at Indiantown to strike Winterset and Fort Des 
Moines. Mr. Reed reached home in good health, Nov. 18, 
having traveled eight hundred and seventy-five miles. 

The year 1851 made a notable record of accessions to the 
churches; the ministerial accessions, too, were noteworthy; 
new work of significance was undertaken, and associational 
innovations led on to great results. 

"The crowning mercy of the year," wrote Mr. Reed, "is 
the bestowment of converting grace in unwonted measures. 
About one-fourth of the churches have been thus cheered and 
strengthened, and the number of souls gathered to the people 
of God will about equal a tenth of all the previous members 
of the churches." Report came from the Denmark Associa- 
tion that "some churches have more than doubled their num- 
ber, and they have all in the aggregate increased twenty-five 
per cent, the past year." The accessions of the year were 
four hundred and fifty-six, two hundred and fifty by confession. 

One of the new ministers was Hiram N. Gates. He began 
at Durango and Trivoli, but was soon settled for quite a 
season at the "Yankee Settlement," and he will be heard 
from time to time. 

John R. Upton, of Wilmot, New Hampshire, Amherst Col- 
lege and Andover Seminary, came to the state this year. 
He too began at Durango, Trivoli, and Concord, but his 
name will go down in our history as the pioneer missionary 
of the Northwest. 

This year, George G. Rice, born at Enosburg, Vermont, 
graduate of Vermont University and Union Seminary, after 
a year at Fairfield, entered upon a long term of service on the 
Missouri slope, beginning at Council Bluffs, in November 
of this year. However, he had to work and wait two years 
before he could create even the semblance of a church, 



104 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

for this was Mormon ground. He is still at Council Bluffs, 
though nearly sixty years have intervened. 

Five new churches were organized this year, but not one of 
them is in existence to-day. Only the Elk River church, 
organized by Oliver Emerson, had an existence long enough or 
large enough to be worthy of a place in our history. 

Before the coming of the railroads, no one could tell where 
the centers of population would be, and in the planting of the 
churches, no one could know which would prosper, this or 
that, or both, or neither. Prophecies missed the mark on both 
sides of it. Ottumwa is an example. Reviewing seven years 
of labor, Mr. Spaulding marveling at the unexpected growth 
of the city, and the whole region, goes on to forecast in 
brilliant colors: 

Otturuwa, which seven years ago, had no existence, its very site being 
then about fifteen miles west of the line which divided civilized from sav- 
age life, is not far from the geographical center of Iowa, and is regarded 
confidently as the future location of the state capital, and probably at the 
end of four years more may have a regular line of packets running one 
hundred miks beyond it into the interior of the state, and transporting 
the commerce of one of the most beautiful and fertile valleys in the 
United States. 

How persistent is prophecy relating to this Des Moines 
Valley! With somewhat more subdued optimism, Brother 
Ephraim Adams of Davenport wrote: 

This place is fast rising in importance. Since the railroad from Chicago 
to Rock Island has been made certain, and its completion within two 
years so probable, many eyes are turned hither; and never were there so 
many strangers in town at this season of the year, looking for houses and 
going away for want of them, as now. 

The college opens this year with an advance, corresponding to the 
growth of all things about it. The day is past when I queried whether 
this were a field of labor. 

This year the State Association virtually organized itself 
into a Church Building Society. Oliver Emerson was the 
head and heart of this movement. He read a paper on the 



REACHING THE MISSOURI, 1850-1854 105 

subject of aid in church building before the Association held 
at Muscatine in 1845. So lucid and strong were the arguments 
that the brethren endorsed it, and voted to request its publica- 
tion in Eastern papers; and considering the matter of special 
importance, they sent Brother Ephraim Adams on to give 
emphasis to the request. To his great surprise, good Doctor 
Badger at the Missionary Rooms, shook his head. "No," 
he said, "the churches won't stand it. If we send ministers 
to the West, you must build your own churches. No, that 
should not be printed." In Boston, Dr. Joseph Clark of the 
Massachusetts Home Missionary Society took the same 
view, and indeed cut the discussion short by saying: "Well, 
it is of no use; Doctor Badger has written me about it, and we 
are of the same mind." No wonder that Brother Adams 
should say that he felt, "with a touch of resentment, that 
a green boy had been sent from one city to another on a sort 
of a fool's errand." 

But the Iowa brethren were not ready to abandon the idea, 
or the effort to secure help in church erection. At the meeting 
of the State Association, this year, 1851, Mr. Emerson, as chair- 
man of "the Committee on Securing Aid for our Feeble 
Churches in the Erection of Houses of Worship," brought in a 
massive and masterly report, which was adopted, and a com- 
mittee was appointed, "to receive applications for aid from 
feeble churches to solicit, by correspondence, contributions from 
benevolent individuals and churches at the East, and distri- 
bute the receipts of this at their discretion to the feeble 
churches." During the year, this committee secured $1,351.65, 
five hundred of this from Hon. Douglass Putnam, of Marietta, 
Ohio, and they gave aid to Tipton, De Witt, Sabula, Eddyville, 
Bellevue, Anamosa and Maquoketa. Undoubtedly, this 
"Iowa Idea," put in practice, had something to do with the 
launching of the Church Building Society. 

The launching of the Church Building Society at the Albany 
Convention was one of the great denominational events of 



106 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

1852, the year to which we have now come. Iowa had to 
do with this great event. The convention was called by the 
New York Association, other State Associations concurring, 
in the interests of the denomination at large. It was a meeting 
of great importance to Iowa Congregationalism and Iowa 
helped to shape its action. Five ministers from the state 
were members of the convention, Asa Turner, E. B. Turner, 
Oliver Emerson, J. C. Holbrook, and Julius A. Reed. 

One of the first things to come up at this meeting was a 
consideration of Western Congregationalism, which, in some 
quarters was discredited, and considered erratic and unsound. 
That matter was finally and forever disposed of by the adop- 
tion of resolutions presented by Julius A. Reed, as follows: 

Whereas, for several years, insinuations and charges of heresy of doc- 
trine and disorder in practice, have been made against Congregationalists 
at the West, frequently too vague in their character, and too sweeping 
and general in their aim to admit of refutation; and 

Whereas, Congregationalism at the West has thereby suffered greatly 
in the estimation of Congregationalists of New England, and of many 
other Christians; therefore, 

Resolved, 1st, that it is the duty of Congregationalists to frown upon 
all such accusations, unless their authors or abettors will make specific 
allegations, and hold themselves responsible for the same. 

Resolved, 2d, that it is very important that the General Associations, 
conferences and conventions at the East, be careful to send delegates to 
the General Associations at the West, that they may obtain reliable infor- 
mation respecting Western Congregationalism. 

One old minister dissented, considering this a complete 
vindication of Western Congregationalism which he was not 
ready to give; and Dr. Edward Hawes wished the resolutions 
laid on the table "that they might have opportunity to under- 
stand the subject"; but the resolutions were adopted with 
only one dissenting voice. "The yeas were like the sound 
of many waters. There were some who had slept little for 
two nights, who that night slept well." It was a happy hour 
for Brother Reed. 

Then, by the instigation of Mr. Bowen of the " Independent" 



REACHING THE MISSOURI, 1850-1854 107 

with the especial support of the Iowa delegation, the resolu- 
tion to raise $50,000 for church building was adopted, 
and the "Congregational Union" was organized, one clause 
of the constitution providing for "cooperation in building 
meeting-houses and parsonages." This was an after thought, 
however, an amendment, but the stone almost "rejected by 
the builders," soon became "the headstone of the corner"; 
and out of this in due time grew our " Congregational Church 
Building Society." 

The sum named at the convention for church building for 
immediate use, was $50,000, but the amount raised was 
$60,000, Mr. Bowen himself giving $10,000. Iowa's share 
of this was $8,000 and thirty-two Iowa churches were aided 
in their buildings by this Fund. The influence of the conven- 
tion on Western Congregationalism was very great. Suspi- 
cions were removed, and the East and the West clasped hands 
in practical fellowship, as they had never done before. 

This year, at the state association, the brethren felt it to be 
their duty to give their old mother, the Home Missionary 
Society, a little slap in the face, perhaps they called it a "love- 
pat," in the adoption of the following: 

Resolved, that while we have unabated confidence in the officers of the 
American Home Missionary Society, in their administration of its affairs, 
we deeply regret that the funds of that society should be appropriated to 
sustain missionaries who do not treat slaveholding as a disciplinable 
offense. 

It will be remembered that there was an early fruitless 
effort made to effect organic union with the Presbyterians. 
Now the effort was no longer for organic unity, but for 
"comity." The Association this year made a deliverance 
on the subject as follows: 

Resolved, that while we regard our system of church polity as founded 
upon the Bible and therefore adapted to promote the best interests of 
our churches we will consider ourselves as essentially one with our Presby- 
terian brethren in doctrine and system of efforts to promote the cause of 
Christ. 



108 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

A very solemn incident connected with this meeting of 
the Association, held at Muscatine, was the discovery of the 
body of Rev. William A. Thompson, which was washed ashore 
on the Saturday morning of this week. Mr. Thompson was 
from Yale; he was not one of the Iowa Band, but he fell in with 
them on their journey West, and was ordained with those of 
them who were ordained at Denmark in November 1843. For 
two years he was at Troy, Davis County, on the outskirts of 
civilization, then served at Fairfield for five years, and then, 
in 1850 took charge of the church at Port Byron, Illinois. He 
came to his death by drowning on the 3rd of May. Now, 
this Saturday morning, as a few of the brethren were walking 
by the river's side, his body, fully identified, was washed 
ashore. The event made a profound impression upon the 
brethren. He was buried at Muscatine. Funeral exercises 
were held at the cemetery early Sunday morning, and appro- 
priate resolutions were adopted by the Association. 

This year, the Band was again broken by the death of Mrs. 
J. J. Hill, May 21. She was born at Bath, Maine, August 
8, 1823, and died at the age of twenty-eight. Her years 
were few, but they were, says Mr. Adams, "filled with the glow- 
ing enthusiasm of an ardent soul. Entering with zeal on the 
mission work, she attached herself at once to everything in 
Iowa. All the brethren, all the sisters, all the churches, every- 
thing in and about her adopted state, was hers. Into every 
plan and method of mission labor, she threw her whole soul. 
The college, now in its prosperity, is the result, in part, of her 
faith and her gifts.' ' It is not strange that her two sons 
should graduate from the college, and go out to distinguished 
Christian service, " for in their infancy, she gave them heartily 
and believingly to the Lord." After the labors of eight 
years she found her grave on the banks of the Mississippi. 
Later, her sons laid her body away to its final rest in "The 
Hazelwood" at Grinnell, by the side of their father. 

The immigration continued in great volume, but the emi- 



REACHING THE MISSOURI, 1850-1854 109 

gration, too, was large. The great procession to the gold 
fields of the Pacific coast marched on through Iowa, and here 
and there Iowa people fell in with the moving ranks. One 
missionary reported nine hundred wagons passing through 
his village, bound for the far West. Mr. Bird, of Des Moines, 
wrote: " Since the middle of March, our town has been 
thronged with emigrants to California, and Oregon. The 
effect of this immense throng, all 'armed to the teeth' is dis- 
astrous in every way." Lions always thronged the path of 
this good man. 

Churches were weakened by the movement. One church 
this year reported the loss of one-fifth of its membership, 
dismissed to go West. The Montrose church sent out to 
California three whole families bidding them good-bye 
with songs and prayer and Christian God-speed. The follow- 
ing from Mr. Gaylord: "We have dismissed three for Oregon. 
At first I felt sad that any should leave this feeble band. But 
now I feel that the hand of God is in it, and that our loss may 
be the means of laying the foundations of a new church in 
that country." 

Council Bluffs was the great rendezvous of this mighty 
migratory host. Brother Rice made this note : " It is estimated 
that ten thousand people, having twenty thousand head of 
cattle, have passed through this place, all stopping here a 
longer or a shorter time, and taking from here a stock of pro- 
visions for their long journey across the mountains. They 
have pretty well drained this part of the country." 

However, he reported progress in his missionary work: 
"We have purchased a house for a place of worship, for which 
we paid one hundred and twenty-five dollars. The citizens 
subscribed to pay for it, and some of the emigrants passing 
through, aided us a little, so that it is all paid for but fourteen 
dollars. The Methodists occupy it with us. A few families 
of Christians have come in. We hope to be able to organize 
a church soon." 



110 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

We have seen how the waters prevailed down in the Missouri 
Bottom in the summer of 1851. Mr. Todd, returning from a 
long and weary wading circuit of his far extending parish, 
and Deacon Gaston coming in from a watery trip to Nebraska 
City, chanced to meet at the stable door. The deacon's 
salutation is: "I have had enough of this." The preacher 
responds "Amen!" They begin at once to hunt for a suit- 
able place on higher ground, the search ending at Tabor. 

The pastor moved to his new cabin two miles south of Tabor 
July 1, 1852, and here, October 12, the church of eight members 
was organized, the place of meeting for a year or more being 
either the cabin or the grove outside. Of course Mr. Todd 
continued his missionary labors in the regions round about. 
He too, had scruples about receiving aid from the Home 
Missionary Society on account of its supposed " complicity 
with slavery," and turned to the American Missionary Asso- 
ciation for assistance. 

The only other church organized this year, was that at 
Knoxville, a part of Brother Burnham's field. July 15, 
Bellevue dedicated a house of worship costing one thousand, 
one hundred and fifty dollars, Doctor Holbrook preaching 
the sermon. This year, also at the end of Mr. Robbins' 
ninth year, Muscatine assumed self-support. The cost to the 
society in the making of the church was $3,000. 

This year Adrian Van Vliet assumed charge of the German 
work at Dubuque and vicinity; J. R. Mershon took up 
the work at Marion; Joseph C. Cooper, was doing evangel- 
istic work at Hillsboro, Salem and other places; and Henry 
K. Edson began his notable career at Denmark Academy. 

This Joseph C. Cooper was not new to Iowa, for he was one 
of Father Turner's converts in 1846. He was a son of the sea, 
and " loved a sailor's life, and a sailor's vices." On a rainy 
Sunday he strayed into church. A point in Father Turner's 
sermon was a barbed arrow to him. The preacher asserted 
that "the man who swears is as much under obligation to 



REACHING THE MISSOURI, 1850-1854 111 

pray as the man who preaches." He went home saying: 
" Strange doctrine to-day! Such a sinner as I am, who don't 
know that there is any God to pray to, — such as I pray? Well, 
if there is no God, it will be only empty breath, and it will 
do no hurt; if there is one, it may do good." 

Reaching home, he took down his Bible and said to his 
wife, "I am going to set up family prayer." In due time, of 
course, he learned by experience that "he that willeth to do 
his will, shall know of the doctrine," that "God is, and is 
a re warder of those who diligently seek him." He threw 
himself into Christian work in connection with the church. 
In 1848 he became a colporteur of the Tract Society, and now 
in 1852 he began a remarkable career an as evangelist. The 
utter religious abandon of the man is illustrated in the fol- 
lowing incident: "In one place where he preached a debt 
rested on the little house of worship. It was due. He sold 
his horse and buggy, and paid it, and went on foot." 

Coming now to 1853, Mr. Reed chronicled "two railroads 
within eighty miles of the Mississippi, and in another year, 
will reach it. Iowa will then be within sixty hours of New Eng- 
land!" He also reported thirteen houses of worship either 
completed within the year, or in process of erection, church 
building being greatly stimulated by the $8,000 from the 
Albany fund. Eddyville had a joyful dedication January 
8, Mr. Spaulding of Ottumwa preaching the sermon. 

Anamosa was contented and proud and happy in the pos- 
session of a new building costing six hundred dollars. 

Marion was ambitious and aspired to a three thousand 
dollar building of brick, 35 x 35, having a steeple, too; and 
now they wanted a bell for it, and proposed to strike some of 
those "princely merchants" of Boston, for the bell; and they 
did it successfully. Pastor J. R. Mershon thus referred to 
the success of the effort: "A very large and splendid bell 
costing $350 at the foundry, has been sent us from Boston, 
two-thirds of the purchase money being donated by merchants 



112 THE PILGRIMS OP IOWA 

in that city, and the rest by our members. " He goes on to 
aver that the bell is heard by several thousands of people, 
"over a district of country twelve miles in diameter, whose 
solitude, but a few years ago, was broken only by the yell of 
the savage and the cry of the wild beast." 

At Maquoketa, too, Father Windsor pastor, there was 
a fine October day of great rejoicing, as a new brick building, 
32 x 50, and "surmounted by one of Meneely's fine-toned 
bells" was dedicated, standing room being at a premium, at the 
dedicatory services. The old sod-covered house in which 
Doctor Salter began his ministry was used for a decade or 
more, then a brick school-house, which was the common 
meeting place of everything of every sort, and now, in 1853 
this real church home. In the summer, John and William 
were at home from college. "They helped to dig the founda- 
tion, haul the brick, put in the window lights, paint the sash, 
and then with a presumption equaled only by the urging 
and generous response of the people, they and their two 
oldest sisters gave a vocal concert, to aid in putting some 
furnishings into the house." 

Brother C. H. Gates of Fairfield contemplates with great 
satisfaction the change from the "old leaky house," "where 
he had to move the Bible to keep it from the rain," to the 
comely structure, beautiful, attractive and comfortable both 
in summer and winter, the new Biole and becoming pulpit; 
those easy and well-filled seats; that choir, increased in num- 
bers and in richness of its music, too, by the soft tones of a 
melodeon," etc. There was certainly no shady side to the 
picture. This was Fairfield's second sanctuary. 

This year there were eight new churches, as follows: Hills- 
boro, Bowen's Prairie, Lansing, Glasgow, Salem, Council 
Bluffs, Quasqueton, and Farmersburg. From Lansing to 
Council Bluffs, "as the crow flieth," is more than four hundred 
miles, so widely were our churches scattered even as early 
as 1853; but northwest of this bee-line, there were no churches 




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REACHING THE MISSOURI, 1850-1854 113 

and few settlements, and south of it, beyond the Des Moines, 
there were only the three churches, Knoxville, Council Bluffs, 
and Tabor; and there were only a few settlements, — these 
to be found in the timber skirting the streams. 

Up to this year, our patriarchs were in statu quo, except- 
ing as Father Emerson had once shifted his place of residence 
and changed his field simply by taking on new territory; but 
now John C. Holbrook, after eleven years of service, deserted 
Iowa for a little season, accepting a call to the New England 
Church of Chicago, and to the editorship of "The Prairie 
Herald," which was the advance sheets of "The Advance," 
the Rev. Jesse Guernsey of Connecticut, taking his place 
as pastor at Dubuque. 

Iowa College was not forgotten at the meeting of the 
General Association. The brethren talked and prayed and 
planned for the college this year, especially as a source of supply 
for the ministry, and they voted to raise five thousand dollars, 
during the year, two thousand of it to be for scholarships 
for the benefit of young men studying for the ministry. Of 
course they started the subscription on the spot, securing 
$711. 

In the Autumn of this year a new professor was added 
to the teaching force, Rev. Daniel Lane of the Band, after 
ten years of service at Keosauqua, taking the chair of Moral 
and Mental Science, and also the principalship of the pre- 
paratory department. 

In 1854 Iowa College graduated its first class consisting 
of John and William Windsor. This year, railroads began 
to appear. Three of them were just across the river, at Du- 
buque, Davenport, and Burlington. A bridge was thrown 
across the river at Davenport and the Chicago, Rock Island 
and Pacific was thus far on its way to Council 
Bluffs. There was great excitement. Nobody knew but that 
he, or what is the same thing, his place might be struck by a 
railroad. Even the year before, Brother Bird at Ft. Des 



114 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Moines was dreading the demoralizing effects of the coming of 
a railroad! Wapello was "confidently expecting" one of the 
" great Pacific Railroad lines/' and also "the Ft. Wayne, 
Lacon and Platte Valley line." This last was a name for 
nothing that ever was realized; and the Rock Island missed 
Wapello by a good many miles. Mt. Pleasant spoke with 
assurance: "We are to have a railroad pass through this place, 
extending from Burlington to the Missouri River." The 
pastor hoped thereby to have a better class of citizens. 

Along the projected line of the Rock Island Road, "far 
out upon the prairie," about one hundred and twenty miles 
west of Davenport, was a pole with a rag attached. To a 
certain young preacher Horace Greeley had said "Go West, 
young man, go W T est." Now this young preacher was out 
here searching for that pole, for he has learned somehow that 
it marked the site of a station that was to be. He preempted 
the land, staked out a town, planned for a church, and pro- 
jected a college. This, of course, was Josiah B. Grinnell, 
the unique, in a class by himself. He grows upon you as 
you read the story of his eventful career. This was the begin- 
ning of Grinnell, town and church and college. 

Mr. Reed reported this year eleven new church buildings, 
and eleven in process of erection. The list of new churches 
for the year was as follows: West Union, Copper Creek, Keo- 
kuk, North Marion, Decorah, Sterling, Le Claire Center, 
Wayne, Elk River, Muscatine German, and Toledo. Of 
these eleven, five continue to this day, in all their days doing 
good service in the kingdom of God. 

The Keokuk church had the courage to be born partly by 
reason of the bequest of John McKain, a thorough-going 
Congregationalist from Guilford, Connecticut. The deed 
of trust, dated December 25, 1846, is as follows: "Being desir- 
ous of promoting the cause of true religion in the township 
granted, bargained, and sold forty acres of land declared to 
be for the use, benefit and support of an orthodox Congre- 



REACHING THE MISSOURI, 1850-1854 115 

gational church at the town of Keokuk, to be called and named 
'the Congregational church of Keokuk. ,,, Because of the 
income of this bequest in the early days of the church this 
is another one of our Iowa churches that received no aid from 
the Home Missionary Society. 

Our first glimpse of our now substantial church at Decorah 
is in a report of the missionary pastor at Lansing, the Rev. 
Timothy Lyman, which says: "Last Sabbath, I spent at 
Decorah, about thirty-five miles west of this place. Here I 
found some twelve or fourteen who had been members of 
Congregational churches. If a church were organized there, 
I think some sixteen would join it." 

A little time after the visit, a church of ten members was 
organized with the advice and council of Julius A. Reed, 
Home Missionary Agent, and Rev. William A. Keith, who 
previously had labored at Maquoketa and Andrew, and then 
at Tipton. Mr. Keith was at once invited to the Pastorate of 
the Decorah church and there remained until July of 1857. 

The Wayne church started out with a plentiful supply of 
Smiths, including the preacher, Elijah P. Smith, his father 
and his brothers, Charles and Sylvester; and the Smiths con- 
tinue, for the church's good, unto this day. To one who has 
known this people, the mention of the "Wayne Church," 
brings up the picture of a godly, church-going, Sabbath- 
keeping New England community, reproduced out here on 
the prairies of Iowa. 

Later the church moved up to the railroad station, and the 
name was changed to Olds. 

The organization of the Muscatine German church was 
with a good deal of stress and strain and storm. It was the 
separation of evangelical from unevangelical elements and 
organizations in the city. The life of the missionary, Chris- 
tian F. Veitz, was threatened by some of the enemies of the 
new movement. However, there were eighteen charter mem- 
bers of the new organization. 



116 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

This year, the churches of the Missouri slope, though only- 
four in number, and two of these as good as dead, with a total 
membership of forty, organized themselves into "The Council 
Bluffs Association"; this, of course, simply because of their 
great distance from other churches. However, the advance 
guards were creeping forward, and George B. Hitchcock, 
missionary for ten years at Eddyville, Oskaloosa, and in 
Marion and Jasper Counties, was now out in Cass County, 
and we will soon hear of churches at Lewis, Grove City, Atlan- 
tic, etc., and Council Bluffs, Tabor, Florence and Civil Bend 
will have company. 

Bowen's Prairie, recently organized, affords a good example 
of the mission of Congregationalism in Iowa to minis- 
ter to populations gathered from the ends of the earth. The 
missionary Thomas H. Canfield wrote: "There are representa- 
tives here of almost every state in the Union, and from several 
European countries; and in my own immediate neighborhood, 
are persons from twelve denominations. I often have in 
my congregation, people of a dozen different states, besides 
foreigners and representatives of a dozen different denomina- 
tions.' J 

The brethren at the General Association must needs give 
the old mother Society another gentle reminder that her 
attitude toward slaveholding church members is not satis- 
factory to them, and they say to the old missionary Boards, 
"We are constrained to feel and utter the conviction that in 
order to retain the sympathies and cooperation of the churches 
of this Association, those Boards should give unequivocal 
evidence of their opposition to slavery, by withholding aid 
from churches which receive voluntary slaveholders to their 
communion." They make also a specific demand on the 
"American Board, to define its position on the subject of 
slavery." 

November 4, of this year, Rev. E. C. A. Woods, of Wapello, 
dropped out of the missionary ranks in answer to a call to 



REACHING THE MISSOURI, 1850-1854 117 

higher service. Three days before his death, his church dedi- 
cated a house of worship. He died at the age of thirty. 
Brother Salter was with him as he passed out into the other 
life and conducted the funeral services. This was the third of 
the Iowa workers called away from the field by death; Horace 
Hutchinson of Builington being the first, and A. W. Thompson 
of Troy, Fairfield and Port Byron, the second. 



Chapter VII 
UP IN THE NORTH COUNTRY, 1855-1860 

We have now, in a way, covered the " Black Hawk Pur- 
chase" with our Christian institutions; we have touched a 
point here and there in the New Purchase, especially down the 
lower Des Moines; we have reached the Missouri; and now, in 
the year 1855, there were in the Council Bluffs Association 
five churches with ninety-four members, including Lewis and 
Magnolia just organized. Tabor, only three years old, with 
a membership of fifty, assumed self-support, and raised 
one hundred and fifty dollars for benevolence, and the Asso- 
ciation was planning to start a college. In Central Iowa, 
churches were organized this year at Grinnell, Otho, and 
Webster City. Congregationalism was moving westward 
in Northern Iowa, taking in Monona, Decorah, and Fayette. 
Immigration was at flood tide and spreading all over, but for 
a time the greatest developments were in the Upper Cedar 
Valley, along the "Wapsie," the Shell Rock, and the Upper 
Des Moines. Christian work had been going on for some time 
at Cedar Rapids and Marion, and in the vicinity of Vin- 
ton. Home Missionary beginnings in which we had a part 
through the American Home Missionary Society, though under 
Presbyterian auspices, had been made at Cedar Falls and 
Janesville, and now the church at Bradford began its life of 
honor and usefulness, men and women of exceptionally forceful 
character being its charter members. 

The first missionary pastor in this field was that humble, 
patient, self-sacrificing man of God, Ozias Littlefield. In 
January of 1850, he took Brother J. J. Hill's place at Garna- 

118 



UP IN THE NORTH COUNTRY, 1855-1860 119 

villo, and was there for three years. In 1854 he labored at 
Elkader, and Farmersburg; and now, July 12, 1855, he entered 
upon a two years' ministry at Bradford, including in his field 
Charles City and Floyd Center. 

At first "the boys" took delight in pestering the parson, 
and made life a weariness to the good man. They abstracted 
one of his buggy wheels; they attempted to disfigure his horse, 
but by mistake inflicted the dishonor upon a nag belonging to 
Mr. Ed. Greely, one of the great men of the town. But the 
good man went on his way, and the boys became ashamed of 
their meanness, and some of them afterwards became all 
sorts of Aarons and Hurs in the church. 

The new organizations of the year numbered ten. Among 
them the following: Magnolia started out with only three 
members. One of them was Rev. W. W. Ludden, a licentiate, 
from Union Theological Seminary. Of course, Brother G. G. 
Rice of Council Bluffs had to do with the gathering of this 
church. He began holding services there in 1853, when there 
were only four Gentile families in the community, and when 
the only thing on the town-plot was a pole with a flag on it, 
marking the center of the village that was to be. The church 
has done a splendid work in the world. Newell D wight 
Hillis, the peerless preacher of Plymouth, Brooklyn, is a Mag- 
nolia boy, and in part a product of that little Home Missionary 
church. 

If any church in Iowa had better beginnings in its mem- 
bership than the Otho church, it was fortunate beyond 
reason. There could be no better foundation material than 
Lucien and Norman Hart, and their families. Much of the 
time without a pastor, services were conducted regularly by 
the members, and they carried on two or three Sunday-schools 
in outlying neighborhoods. 

The Grinnell church "had its inception in the worship of 
eight persons in the log cabin of Perry Matterson," J. B. 
Grinnell, the preacher. The second service, "with a larger 



120 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

congregation, was in the shade of the native oaks at Mr. Oak- 
ley's; then the people gathered in the "long, rough, board 
shanty" called "The Long Home"; next in the church building 
of oak boards, built in a week, and costing less than two 
hundred dollars including the furnishings. The church was 
organized, with twenty members, less than a year after the 
founding of the town. For eight years the church had no 
regular pastor, but from the first, it had in its membership a 
bunch of preachers, those of the first year being J. B. Grinnell, 
Samuel Loomis, and Stephen Herrick. 

The Webster City church, was organized with five members, 
thirty days after the survey of the town plot lot, and twenty- 
eight days before the establishing of the Post Office. Rev. 
Messrs. W. L. Coleman and T. N. Skinner, assisted in the 
organization. During the first year the church had no pastor, 
and only now and then a sermon by some preacher who 
happened to pass that way. 

The Fayette church organized this year had for its first 
pastor, Rev. Stephen D. Helms, his parish including Lima 
and West Union. He was a native of New York, educated 
at Oberlin, "by choice a Presbyterian," he says, "but being 
shut out of that church by my heresy," as he confesses, in 
the spring of 1848, he found fellowship in the Congregational 
ranks. He came to Iowa in 1849; labored four years in Jackson 
County, and then came to Fayette County, this being his 
home to the end of his life, March 15, 1887. 

Among the many pastoral changes of the year, two are 
worthy of special mention. Ephraim Adams, of the Band, 
one year at Mount Pleasant, and eleven at Davenport, now 
dropped out of the pastorate for a season to become the 
financial agent of the college; and George F. Magoun, from 
the state of Maine, a graduate of Bowdoin and Andover, took 
Brother Adams' place in the Davenport pastorate, and here 
commenced his notable career in Iowa. One of the old 
patriarchs, too, Reuben Gaylord, after seventeen years of 



G. F. MAGOUN 



G. A. GATES 







DAN F. BRADLEY j. H . T. MAIN 

PRESIDENTS OF IOWA COLLEGE 



UP IN THE NORTH COUNTRY, 1855-1860 121 

service in Iowa, at Danville and the regions round about, 
passed on to his great life work in Nebraska. The breaking 
up at Danville, and leaving Iowa, was a trying experience. 
He writes: "The deed is done. We have bid adieu to all 
friends made in a seventeen years' ministry, and now stand 
on the frontier where I stood seventeen years ago, except that 
frontier is three hundred miles further west, on the Missouri 
instead of the Mississippi. I was dismissed November 7th, 
the next Sabbath preached my farewell sermon, and then 
bent my energies to preparation for my journey, and closed 
up my business, so that we were ready to leave on the sixth 
of December. " The final parting was a counterpart of that 
of St. Paul with the elders of the church at Ephesus. The 
journey this December weather was not in a Pullman parlor 
coach, but it was by wagon, in mud and rain and sleet and 
snow, through half frozen streams, etc. When Mr. Gaylord 
crossed over into Omaha, "carrying the Sabbath with him 
across the Missouri,' ' it was Christmas day in the afternoon, 
and very cold. 

This year, McGregor first comes into view as a missionary 
field, and the missionary preacher, located at Monona, gives 
it a pretty hard name. He says, "At McGregor's Landing, 
steamboats load and unload upon the Sabbath, just as they 
do other days; and the whistle of the boat is a signal for a 
general gathering. Merchandise of all kinds is freely carried 
forth from the village. There has been no regular preaching 
there during the summer with the exception of my monthly 
appointments; and the attendance has been small. It is 
unpopular to attend meeting. The house in which we meet is 
small and uncomfortable; and we have no bell, and sometimes 
no singing. We have tried to build a comfortable school- 
house; but the chief men of the place, being opposed to 
religious meetings, thwarted the effort, as they could not 
get a vote that it should not be used for religious pur- 
poses." It is difficult for those of us who know the Mc- 



122 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Gregor of to-day, to recognize this as a true picture of the 
McGregor of 1855. 

Take it all in all, 1856 was one of the most notable years 
in our history. The immigrant rush was unprecedented. 
Settlements were pushing up all the streams toward the north 
and the northwest, and, in some places, anticipating the rail- 
roads, the spaces between the rivers were being rilled up. Four 
railroads put in an appearance on our eastern borders, and two 
of them were striking out for Council Bluffs. January 3, 
the Rock Island was formally opened for passenger service as 
far west as Iowa City. In 1850, Julius A. Reed said it would 
not pay to survey parts of Iowa at all, but now in 1856, stand- 
ing on the western borders, at the beginnings of Sioux City, 
he prophesied: "I am satisfied that within three years every 
county in Iowa will have a considerable population. There 
is not a poor county in the state. It is now settled almost 
beyond the possibility of a doubt, that, within ten years, four 
railroads will be constructed across the state, from east to 
west, commencing at Dubuque, Lyons, Davenport, and Bur- 
lington. Within that time, too, a railroad will be constructed 
up the Des Moines Valley, intersecting all these roads, and 
another up the Missouri from St. Louis to Sioux City, unless 
slavery prevents it." Slavery did not prevent it, though 
slavery and the war for and against slavery did delay a little the 
fulfillment of the prophecy. 

Twenty churches were organized this year. The first was 
Ft. Dodge. Services were held in "the old log school-house," 
of course. Rev. T. N. Skinner who had a genius for being on 
the frontier, presided at the organization, and served the 
church for a time as pastor. 

Iowa Falls was the second church for the year. This church 
had its origin in a colony of the three or four families from Ohio. 
They settled first about eight miles from the Falls, and the 
organization was first known as the Ellis Church; but in 1856, 
it was located at the village, and the name changed to "The 



UP IN THE NORTH COUNTRY, 1855-1860 123 

Congregational Church of Iowa Falls and Ellistown." The 
Minutes of 1860, in a foot-note record: "These churches 
were organized in Geanga County, Ohio, March 20, 1855, 
arrived at Ellis, Hardin County, Iowa, May 21st, 1856." 
Rev. John Wilcox was the first pastor. 

The Cass church, one of the organizations of the year, has 
always been in close fellowship with the church at Anamosa. 
In 1855, Rev. S. P. La Due, pastor at Anamosa, held occa- 
sional services in the Cass Center school-house, then without 
plaster, paint or seats. The inside congregation was com- 
prised of two or three families, while the boys and men of the 
neighborhood sat on the fence outside and joined in the service 
as much or as little as they liked. These services, continued 
by the next Anamosa pastor, Rev. S. A. Benton, created a de- 
mand for the church. Five of the seventeen charter members 
were Condits. The church has never been large, but it has 
done good service for the community, the state and the world. 

Buckingham organized with seven members, was the early 
name for our splendid church at Traer, but there is an earlier 
name still. When the church was organized, "in a log cabin," 
by Oliver Emerson, they called it "The Twelve-Mile Creek 
church." Traer was not, nor dreamed of then. Bucking- 
ham was soon substituted for the pioneer name, Governor 
Buckingham of Massachusetts becoming interested in the 
church and community. Rev. J. R. Upton was the first 
pastor; but this was not to be his field, and he was not the 
man ordained to build the church. 

Manchester, first called Burrington, its "calling and elec- 
tion" made sure by the approach of the Dubuque and Sioux 
City Road, attracted the attention of Rev. Alpheus Graves, 
then pastor of Yankee Settlement. He began services here in 
1855. The first pastor, Rev. L. B. Fifield, beginning with the 
inception of the church, was pastor for four years. 

With the organization of the Vernon Springs or New Oregon 
church, later moved to Cresco, we are introduced to a new 



124 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

country up in Howard County. "Father Windsor," coming 
up from Maquoketa, was bishop of the whole region. This 
was the first church in the county. Things were about as 
new as they could be. Some families were living in their cov- 
ered wagons, some in tents, some in sod houses, and some in 
log houses, while a very few had somewhat better places of 
abode. The first communion season was "an occasion long 
to be remembered." Even Baptists sat down with other 
Christians at the Lord's table. 

Our Newton church, now one of our best, started in a very 
feeble way its grand career, Sept. 17, Rev. E. P. Kimball, 
now residing at Waterloo, the pastor. 

In the beginning of 1856, Waterloo was simply a town plot, 
but by September there were enough of good people in the 
place to form a Congregational church of six members. "The 
old log school house" again did service on this occasion. The 
church was organized by a Council, Father Oliver Emerson 
the moderator. J. H. Leavitt, known throughout the state 
for fifty years as a man of piety and good works, was one of 
the charter members. Thomas La Due was the first pastor. 
The council called to ordain him advised that before ordination 
he should take a course in Chicago Seminary. What Council 
since has shown a like fidelity? Mr. La Due soon left the 
Seminary and united with the Free Methodists. For two 
years this church received aid from the American Missionary 
Association, undoubtedly induced to do so by the influence of 
Father Emerson, who at that time was "at outs" with the 
Home Missionary Society. 

It is needless to say that John Todd was at the bottom of 
the Glenwood church. This was one of his numerous preach- 
ing places, and he continued to serve the church for some time 
after its organization. Williamsburg, one of the best of our 
Welsh churches, now entered upon its life of service for the 
Kingdom. The church has always been a joy and a blessing 
in our Congregational fellowship. The man who perhaps 



UP IN THE NORTH COUNTRY, 1855-1860 125 

above all others had to do with the making of the church, was 
Evan J. Evans, born at Llanegryn, Wales, in 1810. From boy- 
hood, up, he was a staunch Dissenter, and an outspoken advo- 
cate of Disestablishment. He organized a church, though 
unordained, and was its pastor for a number of years before 
coming to America in 1847. After serving churches in New 
York and Wisconsin, he took hold of the new enterprise at 
Williamsburg and continued in its service for fourteen years. 
The church soon became strong in numbers and in influence. 
For many years its membership included practically every 
adult Welsh person within a radius of four or five miles. At 
the Cymanfa — the "Big Meeting," lasting three days, three 
services each day and two sermons at each service as a rule, 
unless prevented by exceptional circumstances, every member 
of the community was present at each service. One of the 
children of the Williamsburg parsonage is William D. Evans, 
a distinguished judge of our Iowa Supreme Court. There were 
ten other noble sons and daughters in that house. "The dear 
old mother still lives in the old home which she has dominated 
for nearly fifty years as kindly as an angel. The patriarch 
reached the end of his pilgrimage January 18, 1884, and was 
buried in the little cemetery at Williamsburg with all the 
affection which a community could bestow." 

Iowa City was late in finding a place in our ranks, for the 
reason that two Presbyterian churches, Old and New School, 
occupied the ground sufficiently. But now the New School 
Church disbanded, and a new organization after the Congre- 
gational way was substituted. The membership, however, 
was only seventeen. The church was organized by Council, 
November 26, President Blanchard of Wheaton being the 
moderator. Rev. Thomas Morong, of Andover Seminary, 
was the first pastor. After a brief stay he returned to Massa- 
chusetts, and this first attempt to plant a Congregational 
church in Iowa City met with but little success. Success 
came later. 



126 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

This year 1856 is also made memorable by the advent of 
"Father Taylor" and "Father Sands." The story of Father 
Sands comes more properly a decade later, after he had "found 
his place," but a little sketch of the realistic romance, "The 
Patriarch of the Prairie," may as well be recorded here. 

Rev. Chauncey Taylor was a native of Vermont, born upon 
one of the Green Mountain hills, in a log cabin, February 17, 
1805. His people were rich only in faith and good works. 
His heritage from them was the careful training of a Puritan 
household. Working his way through college, he graduated 
from the Vermont University in 1831. He never saw the 
inside or even the outside of a theological seminary. "I 
studied theology," he said, "in the chimney corner, with the 
Bible for my text book, explained by the ' Assembly's Shorter 
Catechism,' illustrated by Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, and 
enforced by the godly lives of my parents." 

A parish opened to him in one of the little hill towns of his 
native state. In 1838 he chanced upon some literature setting 
forth the prospects of the new territory of Iowa. Ever after 
his heart was in the land beyond the Mississippi, though he 
waited twenty years for the opportunity to come West. Even 
then he made the opportunity. "The newer the place the 
better" he said. So, early in 1856, as the snows were melting, 
and the frozen streams were breaking up, he stood at the 
door of Julius A. Reed, Home Missionary Superintendent, at 
Davenport. He visited some of the churches in Eastern Iowa, 
but they were too much "established" for him. "If I am 
going West, I might as well make a business of it," he said. 
He had heard of Fort Dodge, and he would see what that was 
like. So on he went, by rail to Iowa City, and then by stage- 
coach, — indeed there were five coaches in a bunch, — to Fort 
Des Moines. Seeking a stage-coach passage to Fort Dodge, 
he was informed that the stage-coach went on horseback. He 
went on foot. Fort Dodge, too, was too ancient for him. 
The newest thing out in the region, just then, was Algona. 



CHAUNCY TAYLOR 



WM. L. COLEMAN 







/I /*.\ 





A. S. ALLEN J- E>. MASON 

MEN OF THE NORTH COUNTRY 



UP IN THE NORTH COUNTRY, 1855-1860 127 

At this place, Saturday afternoon, April 19, 1856, he made 
his first appearance thus: "With an oak stick for a cane, my 
pants tucked into my boot-legs, my satchel swinging over my 
shoulder, my overcoat over my arm, and what especially dis- 
tinguished me, with a stovepipe hat upon my head." 

A few men were laying out the town when he arrived. He 
preached for the people on Sunday; he labored with them for 
two years, and then organized a little church of five members. 
At the end of four years the church had dwindled down to 
three members, only one outside the minister's own family. 
It was nine years before the church had developed sufficiently 
to have a single deacon: deacon timber was scarce in the 
region at that time. It was nine years before the church had 
a house of worship. 

The interesting and sometimes pathetic incidents of Father 
Taylor's life in Iowa would fill many pages. At the burial of 
his wife, soon after coming to Algona, as no minister could be 
secured, he himself conducted the services, and his daughter 
led the singing. 

Two years of isolation in his frontier parish, produced a 
hunger for fellowship with his brethren which must be satisfied. 
The meeting this year, 1858, was at Dubuque. Public con- 
veyance was too expensive for his poor pocket-book, and he 
had no conveyance of his own at all adequate for such a jour- 
ney, except his two feet. He began the famous journey May 
18, heading out for Forest City, but, missing the way, wandered 
off into Minnesota. Thursday evening, May 20, he preached 
at the house of a Mr. Pratt, a few miles southeast of Blue 
Earth. Sunday, the 23d, he spent with a German family 
about four miles north of North wood. The next Sunday he 
was with Brother Adams of Decorah. "It was a very rainy 
day," he says, "and I presume Brother Adams was very glad 
to have some one to preach to his small congregation, and also 
glad that it rained so that there were but a few persons to 
complain because he let that old, dull, superannuated man 



128 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

preach instead of preaching himself." "Arrived at Lansing 
June 1st," he says. " Called on Brother George Bent. 
Preached for him in the evening. Took the boat sometime in 
the night for Dubuque." His return trip was by rail to 
Nottingham, the Earlville of to-day; by stage to Cedar Falls; 
with an ox team, sent down from Algona for supplies, to 
Iowa Falls; from there mostly " on foot." For the privileges of 
the meeting he paid the price of walking over two hundred 
miles; and testified that he had abundant compensation for his 
pains. "I arrived at home," he says, "June 16th, having 
been absent a little over three weeks, having traveled about 
five hundred and seventy-five miles, and expended fourteen 
dollars." Six years later he had an experience in "going to 
mill" and to a meeting of the Northwestern Association at 
Iowa Falls. He was caught in a blizzard; twice his wagon 
broke down; his face was badly frozen. It took two weeks 
to attend the meeting and to get a little grist of flour. 

This year, too, the Dubuque people, with great rejoicing, 
welcomed back their pastor, Doctor Holbrook, from Chicago, 
and he fell into his old evangelistic meeting habit, at home 
and abroad. This year, also, John K. Nutting made his 
advent, starting in with a few months of service at Eddyville. 
When ordained at Eddyville, he had accepted a call to Polk 
City, and was the first pastor at that place. 

The German work of the state suffered a great loss this year 
in the death of Brother Carl V. Hess. 

The meeting of the State Association was at Grinnell, the 
church then only a little more than a year old, and the town 
only a year older than the church. The presumption of the 
undertaking had its explanation in the fact that " J. B. Grin- 
nell" lived in the town. However, the church even then had 
a membership of ninety-five, and church and town had great 
expectations and a good degree of self-assurance. Mr. Grinnell 
was as much as anybody the pastor of the church. His com- 
ments respecting the meeting are as follows: "There are two 



UP IN THE NORTH COUNTRY, 1855-1860 129 

mysteries : How the state ministers and delegates came to ac- 
cept an invitation, and how our people came to give it. The 
nearest railroad was sixty-five miles east; stages were crowded, 
and springless wagons, offered for the occasion, furnished the 
best means of travel. These wagons were free; but what a 
weary, unromantic trip for the visitors, society agents, and 
venerable D.D.s, like Doctor Tappan of Maine, who preached 
the sermon. It was bravery and devotion." 

Doctor Tappan preached the sermon in the midst of a 
thunder storm. Brethren wanted him to stop, but he said: 
"I came, fifteen hundred miles to give the sermon and no rain 
or thunder, nothing short of a lightning stroke, is to stop me." 
One of the Iowa ministers reports the meeting thus :"From Iowa 
City, we traveled in lumber wagons, and we had a rough ride. 
It paid well, however, for we had an excellent meeting. We 
found Grinnell in a very flourishing condition in every respect. 
The town contains seventy houses, and five hundred inhab- 
itants. A high school edifice, which cost about four thousand, 
five hundred dollars and has a fine bell, presented by Rev. 
Mr. Grinnell, has already been completed. The building is 
forty feet square, and two stories high. We held our sessions 
in it. At the close of our meeting, a collection to assist the 
poor in Kansas was taken up." Of course, this meeting at 
Grinnell took cognizance of the great struggle going on in 
Kansas : 

Resolved, that we have heard with profound sorrow and indignation 
of the outrages that have been inflicted upon our fellow citizens of Kansas, 
by hordes of armed men from Missouri, for the purpose of crushing out 
liberty there; and of the cowardly and murderous assault upon Honor- 
able Charles Sumner, in the Senate Chamber, by a representative from 
South Carolina. Every sentiment of justice, liberty and religion demands 
of the government the protection of the people of Kansas in the full enjoy- 
ment of all their rights as American citizens. We sympathize most deeply 
with our brethren in Kansas, and pledge ourselves to aid them in every 
Constitutional way to maintain their rights and defend the institutions of 
freedom. 
10 



130 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

So far as resolutions would do it, they gave the monster 
slavery another stunning blow. They ease up on the Home 
Missionary Society a bit, rejoicing, "In the position of the 
American Home Missionary Society in regard to slavery as 
indicated in the May number of* the Home Missionary for the 
current year." 

They rejoiced also in the success of Iowa College; and favored 
the plans for establishing the Chicago Theological Seminary. 
They promised support to the Congregational Herald of 
Chicago; and they urged the calling of another National Con- 
vention, especially to secure another Church Building Fund, 
as the "Albany Fund" was exhausted; and they resolved 
"that, should there be a failure to carry forward the plan of 
raising a general fund of $100,000 the committee of the Iowa 
Church Building Fund be authorized and instructed to under- 
take the raising of $20,000 for this state." 

Iowa's practical interest in the Kansas struggle is illustrated 
in the following : " Stirring times at Tabor now. Pastor John 
Todd has a brass cannon in his haymow, and another on wheels 
in his wagon shed. He has also boxes of clothing, boxes of 
ammunition, boxes of muskets, boxes of sabres, and twenty 
boxes of Sharp's rifles stowed away in the cellar." Many 
other houses in Tabor have in them like accouterments of war. 
"When houses would hold no more," says Mrs. G. B. Gaston, 
"wood-sheds were temporized for bedrooms, where the sick 
and the dying were cared for. Barns also were fixed for 
sleeping rooms. Every place where a bed could be put or a 
blanket thrown down was at once occupied. There were 
comers and goers all times of day and night. After battles, 
they were here for rest; before, for preparation. Our cellar 
contained barrels of powder and boxes of rifles," and all around 
were "loaded revolvers, cartridge boxes and bowie knives, and 
boxes of swords under the bed." What was it all about? 
Bleeding Kansas was fighting for freedom, and Tabor was one 
of the places of rendezvous for the volunteers of the great 



UP IN THE NORTH COUNTRY, 1855-1860 131 

struggle. "John Brown of Osawatomie" was a familiar 
figure on the streets of Tabor in those days. 

Now comes 1857, the year of the great financial crash; but it 
was a year of great activity in Iowa, both in secular enterprise 
and in church extension. So great had been the numerical and 
territorial enlargement of our work, that three new associa- 
tions were organized, — Garnavillo, Mitchell, and Grinnell. 

The greatest developmemts of the year were up in the Upper 
Cedar County, and within the bounds of the Mitchell Asso- 
ciation. Already churches had been organized at Bradford, 
and Shell Rock; and now beginnings were being made at 
Stacyville, Mitchell, Nora Springs, Rockford, Mason City, 
Charles City, Hampton, etc. 

Stacyville was organized with twenty-three members Jan- 
uary 18. The name of William L. Coleman will be forever 
associated with this place. In the summer of 1856 he came 
up from a nine years' pastorate at Belle vue, to join a colony 
at Stacyville. " Stacyville" it must be for there were Stacys 
at every turn and corner. In describing the newness of the 
region Brother Coleman says: "The vast prairies around me 
are for the most part lying in their uncultivated wildness. 
The village is about five months old. My dwelling we found 
without a floor. Our cooking stove answers the three-fold 
purpose of kitchen stove, parlor stove and study fire-place. 
Mitchell County has probably more than doubled its popula- 
tion since April. Our population in and around Stacyville 
is intelligent and generally moral; and with the blessing of 
God, we hope for a fair share of success in religious and educa- 
tional institutions." 

Stacyville was always a bright spot on our Congregational 
map. 

Brother Coleman was also the real founder of the Mitchell 
church, although Rev. S. P. La Due, did the preliminary work 
leading up to the organization and served the church as pastor 
for five months. He then went over to Rockford to do pre- 



132 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

liminary work there, for it was his special mission to be a 
pioneer of the pioneers. Mitchell then came under the pastoral 
care of Mr. Coleman. Mr. La Due had to do also with gather- 
ing material for the church at Nora Springs. 

Other churches were organized this year as follows: The 
McGregor church, Oliver Emerson assisting in the organi- 
zation. The first pastor, Rev. Joseph Bloomer, beginning in 
October of this year, fell at his post, February 21, 1858. He 
was a convert of Doctor Holbrook at Dubuque; studied at 
Iowa College, graduated at Amherst, 1856, studied awhile at 
Andover, and then came to McGregor. His time was short; 
but the results of his work were great. Few churches of our 
fellowship have been more to us and to the world, than this 
beloved church at McGregor. 

This year the German church of Davenport started upon its 
life of struggle, sometimes in defeat and sometimes in victory 
but always a light in a dark place. Names to be associated 
with this church forever are those of Jacob Graff and Father 
Frederick W. Judeisch, the latter serving for fourteen years. 

Almoral Church, Rev. N. H. Gates, pastor, was composed 
of "a small colony of eastern people who came here to make 
homes and build up religious institutions." There is a tra- 
dition that the name Almoral is a contraction for " All Moral," 
a jibe against the town by profane outsiders. It was the pur- 
pose of the colony to build here an educational institution. 
They succeeded only in part. The Illinois Central Railroad, 
running "where it ought not," left them one side, but Almoral 
is still a lovely spot, and has many and many times over 
justified its being. 

Grandview church, F. W. Judeisch pastor for fifteen years, 
on May 21 began a long time service among the Germans of 
the community, and at length made them over into an English 
speaking people. 

Green Mountain, deriving its name, not from the physical 
features of this part of Iowa but from the nativity of some 



UP IN THE NORTH COUNTRY, 1855-1860 133 

of the early settlers, was one of the organizations of the year. 
About a year earlier, the question of a church was considered, 
and what it should be. The general answer was: "Anything 
but Congregational"; but Congregational it was foreordained 
to be, for the everlasting good of the people. Early pastors 
and men of great influence in the community were Robert 
Stuart and Henry L. Chase. Green Mountain is a spot of 
perennial verdure in Congregational Iowa. 

How easy now to write and read: "Sioux City, organ- 
ized by John Todd, of Tabor, August 9, 1857." But Tabor 
is one hundred and fifty miles away; and this is "the Parson's" 
second trip on horseback through the mud and mosquitoes 
of the Missouri Bottom to gather into a church organization 
less than a dozen people. The church had no pastor, and 
was not to have for four or five years, and there was no 
minister of the Congregational name within seventy-five 
miles. There was nothing here but faith and hope and cour- 
age and great expectations; but from that day to this, the 
church has held steadily on its way of blessing to the world. 

To one familiar with our Iowa history, the name of William 
P. Avery, a graduate of Amherst college in 1839, is inseparably 
linked with Chapin and Hampton. He had no other pas- 
torates in Iowa. Hampton began with five members. Mr. 
Avery served the church for fourteen years. For twenty-five 
years and more, he was totally blind. Chapin and Hampton 
will never lose the savor of his gentle and beautiful life. 

Plymouth Des Moines blossoms into life, a vigorous plant 
from the first. It was large enough, and strong enough, and 
self-sacrificing enough to be self-supporting from the start. 
Almost from the beginning, take it all in all, it has been the 
leading church of our denomination in the state. Its first 
pastor was Rev. J. T. Cook. We will hear from other pastors 
later on. 

One of the significant events of the year, was the resignation 
of Julius A, Reed as Agent of the Home Missionary Society 



134 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

to take the treasurership of Iowa College, and the coming of 
Jesse Guernsey of Dubuque to take Mr. Reed's place as the 
Home Missionary Agent. As we said at the beginning of 
Mr. Reed's service, in 1845, so now we can say with emphasis: 
He was a man for the place; he did splendid work; more than 
sixty churches were organized under his supervision in the 
twelve years of his service. 

Two other notable events of the year were the incorporation 
of Tabor Academy, the embryo of Tabor College, and the 
coming of Pres. William M. Brooks to begin his thirty years of 
service for Tabor and for Iowa. Most hearty greetings to 
the school and to the man, for both are worthy Iowa institu- 
tions for which we are profoundly grateful. 

This year Ephraim Adams commenced his fruitful pastorate 
of fifteen years at Decorah. Years later he confessed: "It 
was more of a sacrifice for me to go from Davenport to Decorah 
than to come from Andover to Iowa." 

The State Association had the staple subjects for resolutions: 
The Chicago Theological Seminary, Home Missions, and 
slavery. The resolutions respecting the Home Missionary 
Society in its relation to slavery were to the effect that the action 
of the Society is satisfactory only that it is not satisfactory. 
The decision of the "Supreme Court of the United States in 
the case of Dred Scott" was characterized as "a violation of 
the law of God, and of the spirit of the Constitution, and is 
the civil and moral assassination of the African race; that all 
humane and Christian men in the nation are called upon to 
disregard it; and that we desire especially to commend all 
faithful pastors and preachers who are laboring to arouse the 
people of the land to the enormity and baseness of that 
decision." 

Congregationalism proves itself to be a determining factor 
in political issues. " After the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska 
bill," says Mr. Reed, "the Free Soil men of Iowa nominated 
a ticket not expecting its election, but in order to have the 



R. C. HUGHES 



JOHN GORDON 






W. M. BROOKS 
GEO. N. ELLIS p. w. LONG 

PRESIDENTS OF TABOR COLLEGE 



UP IN THE NORTH COUNTRY, 1855-1860 135 

state canvassed in the anti-slavery interest. At the same time 
the Whigs nominated James W. Grimes for the office of 
governor. Mr. Grimes proposed to the Free Soil party through 
Father Turner, that, if they would support him, he would 
canvass the state upon three issues: Opposition to the exten- 
sion of slavery; the passage of a banking law; and a third 
which I do not now recall but which did not specially interest 
the Free Soilers; but that if they would not support him he 
would let the election go without effort. A second Free Soil 
convention accepted Mr. Grimes' offer, and withdrew their 
candidates. The election of Governor Grimes, and the 
formation of the Republican party was the result. The point 
on which the acceptance of Governor Grimes' proposition, and 
his election turned, was the confidence which the Friends (or 
Quakers) reposed in Father Turner." For once "even our 
good Homer nods." That third issue was temperance, a 
matter in which he and the party were interested almost as 
much as in the question of slavery. 

Hard times continued into 1858, but it was a year of increase. 
Mitchell Association alone reported new churches at Algona, 
Chapin, Charles City, Mason City, New Hampton, Osage, 
Plymouth, Riceville, and Rockford. 

After two years of hard work Father Taylor of Algona, had 
a little church of five members, only three outside of his own 
family. After a year of service, Father Avery succeeded in 
organizing at Chapin. 

As we have seen, back in 1855, Charles City was a part of 
the Bradford field. Superintendent Guernsey wrote: "Instead 
of the three or four mud cabins of 1854, there is a town of 1500 
or 2,000 inhabitants, with dwellings neat and tasteful, business 
houses, etc.; and, last but not least, with a promising church 
organization under the care of a young and gifted missionary 
of the American Home Missionary Society." This gifted 
young missionary was John Windsor. His brother William 
was about twenty miles up the valley at Mitchell. These 



136 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

brothers were the first graduates of Iowa College — in fact 
were the whole class, — and both were graduates of Andover 
Seminary. Father Windsor was about forty miles away over 
at New Oregon in Howard County. 

Mason City, organized with eleven members, March 7, 
was the handiwork of Thomas Tenney. " Father Tenney" 
came from Massachusetts in 1855, and settled in a grove which 
became the village of Plymouth. He organized the churches 
at Plymouth and Shell Rock, and was pastor of all the churches 
in the region, including Mason City, for several years. 

New Hampton had among its pioneers the Gurleys and the 
Gardners, and J. H. Powers, not yet plural. It goes without 
saying that these people would organize a Congregational 
church, preacher or no preacher. It was for the most p&rt 
"no preacher" for a good many years. Rev. J. C. Strong 
came over from Bradford to assist in the organization, and he 
gave them an occasional service, but the church was a "seed 
having life in itself." 

Osage began as an Old School Presbyterian church, but the 
people of the community were not Old School people, and the 
preachers about — W. L. Coleman, the Windsors on either side 
at Mitchell and Charles City — were not Old School preachers. 
Old School Presbyterianism had no show in that part of the 
country. So it came about that on December 18, of this year, 
the Old School Church came out into the better way, bringing 
their unfinished brick meeting-house with them and their 
New School Presbyterian preacher too. Straightway, the 
church nearly doubled its membership. For nearly a decade 
this good man, "Parson Smith," the Rev. William J. Smith, 
was pastor of the church. , 

The Riceville church beginning under the title the Saratoga 
church and then the church of Saratoga and Jamestown, was 
another inevitable; for the Seeleys and the St. Johns were there, 
and Rev. W. L. Coleman was only about twenty miles away 
and Father Windsor was about the same distance on the other 



UP IN THE NORTH COUNTRY, 1855-1860 137 

side. The first Sunday after coming these families started 
a Sunday school, and they had religious service every Sunday, 
whether they had a preacher or not. The church was organ- 
ized in a rude shanty, the home of Deacon St. John — a full 
half decade before the coming of their first resident minister, 
Rev. Edwin Teel. They were supplied in part by Brothers 
Coleman and Windsor but a good deal of the time they had 
only " deacons' meetings," and they were edified thereby. 

We have already caught a glimpse of Rev. S. P. La Due, 
doing preliminary work at Rockford. The church was organ- 
ized with five members. Strong men and women gave tone 
and character to this church in the early times. 

All these were new churches in the Mitchell Association. 
Other parts of the state were not wholly inactive. A church 
was organized at Edge wood January 25, this being in effect 
the old Yankee Settlement church reorganized. At Polk City, 
April 3, a church of five members was organized by the adop- 
tion of the following: "That we have perfect confidence in 
each other's Christian character and regular church standing, 
and that we deem it expedient to organize a Congregational 
church, and will unitedly act in sustaining the same." Rev. 
J. K. Nutting was the first pastor. 

Onawa, over on the Missouri Bottom was organized by 
Father G. G. Rice, of Council Bluffs, and Mr. Rice continued 
for a season to shepherd the little flock. For twenty years 
we wrote, "C. N. Lyman of Onawa"; and his influence still 
abides in all the region. 

Nevinville was organized October 30. Rev. H. Penfield 
of Quincy, Adams County, thus wrote: "In addition to other 
points, I have preached at Nevin, or what has been usually 
called the New England Colony. The families are nearly or 
quite all Christian families. They commenced holding reli- 
gious meetings soon after they reached the ground, and have 
kept them up to the present time. A few days ago, we organ- 
ized a church of nineteen members, and embracing all the 



138 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

religious elements of the settlement. Almost every one of 
the Eastern states is here represented, and also Ohio and 
Illinois; and we expect that each will have an influence to draw 
friends and acquaintances, and thus make a large and impor- 
tant settlement!" 

These expectations were not realized. The railroad passed 
by on the other side, the Creston side, and Nevin has given her 
strength to the upbuilding of other churches and communities. 

The last organization of the year was at Central City. The 
Blodgetts were there in force, and other people just as good; 
and the church has always been "a city set upon a hill," 
though the location of the building is in a valley. 

Luther R. White was this year called from his work. His 
last service was the building of the meeting-house at Brighton. 
He painted the pulpit, but he never preached from it. He saw 
the building completed, but the first service in it was in con- 
nection with his burial. 

In 1859 the hard times were harder than ever. Superinten- 
dent Guernsey thus described the condition: " There has been 
not a little real destitution. If you go into not a few homes 
you will find no meat on their tables, no sugar in their bowls, 
no tea or coffee in their cups, and often no flour, except that 
made of Indian corn, in their barrels." Salaries of missionaries 
were cut down, and unpaid, and children went barefooted all 
winter. 

"It was distressing," one writes, "to see the little ones 
running around in mid-winter without a shoe or stocking on 
their feet." But the Superintendent reported wonderful 
developments, especially in Mitchell Association, where, in a 
region unexplored five years before, there were now scores of 
towns and villages and churches. He made especial mention 
of Osage, four years previous a naked prairie, but having now 
a population of one thousand or more, a church with a sub- 
stantial brick building, and a schoolhouse that would put to 
shame many of the smart towns of New England. We cannot 



UP IN THE NORTH COUNTRY, 1855-1860 139 

but smile at the Superintendent's enthusiasm over that school- 
house, for it was really a very plain affair. He tells of the 
joint meeting of the Mitchell and Garnavillo Associations held 
at Osage; and how Deacon St. John and his family came over 
from beyond Riceville, a distance of about twenty-five miles, 
with an ox-team to attend the meeting. 

There were great developments this year in the missionary 
fields, but not many new churches. 

Earlville, first called Nottingham, was organized February 
6, the first services being conducted by Rev. H. N. Gates of 
Almoral, in a railroad car. The two churches had been in 
very close association from the beginning, usually having the 
same pastor. 

Exira was the next church to be organized. Rev. 0. 
Cummings was the pastor. No pastor ever had better backing 
than he in his membership. Deacon Bush was " Deacon 
Bush" for twenty-three years, and carried the name with him 
to the grave. 

The Dunlap church, organized as "The Congregational 
church of Harrison," May 8th, started out on its noble mission 
with a membership of six. The Kelloggs were there then as 
they are there now. H. C. Lyman, the first deacon, held that 
office for more than thirty years. Rev. Henry D. King of 
Magnolia organized the church and had the pastoral over- 
sight of it for several months. When the church was organ- 
ized, there was not a single house on the present site of Dunlap, 
and the nearest mill and Post Office were at Council Bluffs. 
^Fontanelle set out with eighteen members, Rev. Joseph 
Mather, pastor. 

At the meeting of the Association this year "The Oberlin 
Rescuers" were encouraged by the following resolutions: 

Resolved, 1. That we extend to these brethren and fellow-citizens 
our hearty sympathy, and say to them: Be courageous in enduring wrong 
for the sake of right. We believe that the result of your case will have an 
important bearing on the cause of liberty throughout the whole country. 



140 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

2. That we recognize the providence of God, which is using the enforce- 
ment of this unchristian enactment to increase the humane and Christian 
opposition of our fellow-citizens to the whole system of American slavery, 
whether established by enactment of the general government, sanctioned 
by the Supreme Court, or enforced by federal officers. 

3. That we now take up a collection in aid of the brethren and friends 
in bonds in Ohio, and that the same be forwarded to Rev. H. L. Hammond 
of the Congregational Herald, for them. 

"A collection amounting to forty-six dollars was taken up." 

In this year, the location of Iowa College was changed from 
Davenport to Grinnell. There were several reasons for the 
change. Davenport was no longer central to the constituency 
of the college, and did not prove to be the congenial home for 
it that was desirable. There was a growing feeling in the 
interior that a river town was not a suitable location for a 
college. Moreover J. B. Grinnell was at Grinnell, and Grinnell 
was planning for a college, and had one in sight and under 
way; so the trustees sold their property at Davenport, and had 
about $9,000 after debts were paid to put with the $36,000 cash 
and campus value donated by the citizens of Grinnell. 

In the records of the General Association for June, 1859, 
at Muscatine, we find the following: "A letter was read from 
Chauncey Taylor, with an application from the Northwestern 
Association, organized at Webster City, February 19, 1859, 
to be connected with this body. Voted to grant the request 
with the recommendation that they change their name to the 
Fort Dodge Association." 

This they did not do; for the matter had been fully con- 
sidered, and Father Taylor cut the discussion short by saying: 
"There will never be anything to the northwest of us, but 
Indians and grasshoppers." So the name was adopted and 
continued for thirty-five years. How inappropriate the name, 
a glance at the map will show, for Eldora, and Parkersburg, 
and Allison away on toward Dubuque, were in the Northwest 
Association. The association started with eight churches and 
three ministers; the churches being Alden, Algona, Clear Lake, 






OSAGE CHURCH BUILDINGS 



UP IN THE NORTH COUNTRY, 1855-1860 141 

Ellis, Fort Dodge, Iowa Falls, Otho, and Webster City, and 
the ministers, Chauncey Taylor, T. N. Skinner, and J. Wilcox. 

In April of this year the first and last steamboat invaded the 
bounds of this Association. The year marked substantially 
the close of navigation on the inland streams of Iowa. Until 
now the dream of the stream lingered in the hopes of the 
people. In the spring of this year the business men of Fort 
Dodge organized a stock company to build a boat for the 
Upper Des Moines. The stock found eager purchasers, and a 
stern-wheel vessel of fifty tons capacity, named the Charles 
Rogers, was built for this service. One dark night in April, 
Captain Blackshire came steaming up the river and blew a 
blast so long and loud that the citizens imagined a whole fleet 
had come to pay a visit to Fort Dodge, and in a few minutes the 
banks of the river were lined with men, women and children 
who were jubilant over the fact, that now at length the city 
was brought into close contact with the rest of the world 
through this great highway of travel and commerce. Alas, 
this glorious vision was too bright to last ! The vessel made a 
half dozen trips to Des Moines and Keokuk, bringing up immi- 
grants, groceries and provisions, and returning with potatoes, 
grain, and excursion parties at half rates; but the low water 
put a stop to the business, and the boat was sold. Not until 
a decade later was the whistle heard again, and that not down 
in the timber, but out on the prairie, east of the town, heralding 
the approach of the railroad train. 

The record for 1860 begins: " Unprecedented propserity! 
Our prairies never groaned beneath such a burden of wealth." 
Just the time for dedications. McGregor dedicated, and 
Stacyville and Osage. The Osage unfinished building inher- 
ited from the Old School church was completed by the sale of 
pews, thereby leaving an inheritance of trouble to the gener- 
ations following. At the Stacyville dedication, the. audience 
was electrified by the announcement that a friend in the East 
had sent them $30.00; and again there was a great sensation as 



142 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Brother Coleman read a communication from the Congrega- 
tional Union which said, "It may be interesting to your people 
to know that the money, one hundred and fifty dollars that 
we send you, is the contribution of Deacon P. Haven, of New 
London, Connecticut." The thirty dollars came from the same 
man. How did he become interested in Stacyville? Simply 
by noting the fact that this little church the year before had 
given thirty dollars to missions, and he concluded that it was 
made of the right sort of stuff, and was worthy of encourage- 
ment. 

The new churches this year were Prairie City, Cedar Falls 
and Monticello. Probably the Cedar Falls church was the 
most excessively Congregational church ever organized in 
Iowa, for it was a reaction from Presbyterianism, and L. B. 
Fifield was pastor. 

Up to this year of grace, notwithstanding all the unexpected 
developments, some of the people, and leaders of the people, 
were still unbelieving as to the future of Iowa. An exploring 
missionary thus characterized the country: "All of the Missouri 
slope is destitute of timber. It never can be settled, except 
in small localities, till timber is raised. There are groves of 
timber, around which settlements are being made, and from 
these other settlements will work out ; but the process must be 
slow, unless railroads come to their help. Land, in a large 
portion of western Iowa, is worth just about as much, for all 
present use, as it is in the Atlantic ocean. It is good for 
nothing; and will be good for nothing only as the slow growth 
of timber shall give it value, or railroads shall bring in fencing 
and building materials." Why was not the reader there to 
preempt a few quarter sections of that worthless land to 
enrich himself and endow Iowa College and Tabor College, and 
the American Home Missionary Society! And why cannot 
some of the men who have possession of that same worthless 
land use a portion of their wealth according to this wise 
suggestion! 



UP IN THE NORTH COUNTRY, 1855-1860 143 

This same far-sighted prophet gave this further instruction 
and advice to the officers of the Home Missionary Society: 
"The central portion of the state, the counties lying on the 
Des Moines, and the southern tier of counties, and, with some 
qualifications, all that section which lies north and east of the 
Des Moines river, is capable of being settled. According to 
these views, your great work as a Home Missionary Society, 
this side of the Rocky Mountains, must be, in cultivating the 
ground you have already gone over. The wave of emigration 
has spread out as far as it can. It must now turn to the work 
of filling up the ground already gone over. It is utterly im- 
possible that our population should spread over as much 
territory in the Northwest, during the twenty-five years to 
come, as in the twenty-five years past. There is no place for 
them!" Listen to this, Northwestern Iowa, and the Dakotas 
and Wyoming and Montana! You have no business even now 
to be anything else than a howling wilderness, for the word of 
the prophets must be fulfilled! 

The following item in a report to the Home Missionary 
Society, of a Presbyterian missionary in Iowa suggests a 
chronic grievance which this year becomes acute. The mis- 
sionary said: "I have lately read a letter and circular from 
Rev. Mr. Norton, agent for the Church Extension Committee 
in the West, desiring me to take up a collection for that cause, 
and stating that he does not think the American Home Mis- 
sionary Society's holding the rod over us in terrorem need deter 
us from going forward in said work." 

To make plain the meaning of this, a bit of history is 
required. When the American Home Missionary Society was 
organized, in 1826, Congregationalists and Presbyterians 
united in supporting the organization, and both denominations 
received aid from it in the planting and fostering of their 
churches. All went well for a time, but before long denomi- 
national zeal took the place of Christian charity, and even the 
rule of Christian comity could not be maintained. The Pres- 



144 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

byterians at length proclaimed in a meeting of the General 
Assembly that henceforth it would be their policy to push for 
the organization of Presbyterian churches in " advance of all 
others." Our people contended that in every new community 
where a church was to be organized, a majority vote should 
decide whether the church should be Presbyterian or Congre- 
gational. Our state Association took the matter up in 1855, 
and resolved, "That the new measure of the General Assembly 
is inconsistent with cooperation in Home Missionary work, 
and, if persisted in, must speedily result in disruption." Again 
in 1857, our brethren said: " Whereas, the church extension 
scheme of the Presbyterians is entirely inconsistent with the 
cooperation of the two denominations that sustain the 
American Home Missionary Society, Resolved, that if this 
system be continued, we recommend the calling of a conven- 
tion with reference to an amicable separation of the Presby- 
terian and Congregational churches in the Home Missionary 
work." 

And now, in 1860, in a series of resolutions, eight in number, 
the Association reviewed the case, protesting that the Presby- 
terians by their scheme and practice of church extension were 
violating the principles of cooperation, and advising the 
Society hereafter to limit its appropriations to the Presby- 
terians to their contributions to its treasury. Now this was 
"the most unkindest cut of all," for, for years, the Presbyterian 
appropriations had been far in excess of its contributions, and 
those contributions had been growing less from year to year. 
Evidently a crisis was at hand. Separation seemed inevitable. 
The next year the Presbyterians withdrew from the American 
Home Missionary Society, leaving to us alone the great name 
and the great work of this great national Society. 



Chapter VIII 
IN THE WAR TIME, 1861-1865 

In 1861 "the irrepressible conflict" reached a crisis. For 
a long time it had been going on in state and national legisla- 
tion, and in angry and bloody debates both North and South. 
December 20, 1860, South Carolina seceded. January 9, 
1861, "The Star of the West" was fired upon in Charleston 
harbor. February 8, Jefferson Davis was elected President 
of the Confederacy. March 4, Abraham Lincoln was inaug- 
urated President of the United States. War was inevitable. 
April 12, Fort Sumter was bombarded. April 18, the United 
States arsenal at Harper's Ferry was destroyed by the Fed- 
erals. June 3, the battle of Philippi; June 10, the battle of 
Big Bethel; July 20, the Confederate capital was established 
at Richmond. The War had actually begun. 

It goes without saying that Congregational Iowa was pro- 
foundly affected by these events. New England feared that 
the Upper Mississippi might join the Confederacy, that in 
that way the great river might flow "unvexed to the sea." 
Father Turner speaking for Iowa, said, "I have no more fear 
of our state joining the rebel South, than I have of GabrieFs 
joining Satan." At the meeting of the General Association 
the brethren spoke with no uncertain voice. By unanimous 
vote they said: "Resolved, that in this struggle to put down 
rebellion, we pledge the government our sympathy, our efforts 
and our prayers, feeling that the good of our land, and the 
good of the world requires that our government should sus- 
tain itself at whatever sacrifice of treasure and blood." 

They also characterized the conflict as a struggle between 
n 145 



146 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

"liberty and despotism, freedom and slavery, right and wrong, 
God and Satan." And they expressed the confidence that 
the "God of battles" would bring the conflict to such an issue 
as "to glorify himself, and purify the nation from the curse 
of slavery." The Minutes of the year record that "during 
the evening the Star Spangled Banner was sung with great 
zest, the whole congregation joining in the chorus. The choir 
also sang The Flag of our Country, and other pieces." 

J. K. Nutting, from his little parish at Bradford thus wrote 
to the Home Missionary Society: "Almost while I write, I 
hear the roll of the drum calling men to defend the precious 
legacy of our fathers. I have felt it my duty to hand in my 
name, among the rest, as ready for the contest. We are all 
prepared to die for our land, and the sacred right God has 
given us. I cannot help feeling that the battle of our country 
will be decided by them that kneel rather than those that 
march, though both are necessary; and I am sure that many 
of Cromwell's men will be found in the army!" In a post- 
script, he says : " I suppose the war will embarrass you. Never 
was a time when we more needed your prompt help, but we 
will dig, if you cannot help us. Credit me two dollars, and 
send the balance." 

S. P. La Due, of Rockford followed in the same vein: 
"Probably nine-tenths of all the able-bodied men through 
this entire region, including youths and white-headed men, 
meet weekly for drill, and hold themselves ready to respond 
to any call of the government." 

Brother Reed Wilkinson of Fairfield gave this information: 
" Over a hundred of our young men have gone to join the army, 
in response to the President's call. Although we have a large 
majority here in favor of the Union, still there is in the county 
a large number of individuals who sympathize deeply with 
the rebels." Later he reports: "The pecuniary strength of 
the church has been considerably reduced within a few months 
by the withdrawal of two or three hitherto prominent members 



IN THE WAR TIME, 1861-1865 147 



on account of their pro-slavery and Southern sympathies." 
This was one of the bitterest ingredients in our cup of woe. 
It was a civil war, a fratricidal contest; households were 
divided; brother met brother on many a fatal field. The 
Lord hide our faces from another scene like this! 

Another, his name withheld, wrote: "This report belongs 
more properly to the war department than to the Missionary 
rooms. Last Sabbath, after gathering in the grove for religious 
worship, we were called upon to dismiss our meeting, and make 
all possible speed to the line to prevent a threatened invasion 
of the enemy. Before Monday morning, almost all the able- 
bodied men in three counties were along the line or in Missouri. 
The enemy had been routed, but these almost weekly calls 
to the borders are having a deleterious effect upon the interests 
of religion." 

Evidently the same pen later gave this vivid picture : "We 
are on war ground, and in the midst of contentions. Alarm 
bells, and alarm drums, roaring cannon and glistening bayonets, 
men preparing to march, and women preparing provisions for 
them! Here all are enrolled on the list of the Home Guards 
either as effective or reserved forces, and all that can carry arms, 
from the young man of sixteen to the old man of seventy, are 
drilled to the use of the weapons of death. The effective force 
has been called on twice to repel invasion, and once marched 
as far as Memphis, Missouri, and at present, there are over 
one hundred men, from this vicinity, in Knox Co., Missouri, 
keeping in check the rebels. Last Sabbath morning, at three 
o'clock, we were aroused from our beds by the alarms. We 
had but a small Sabbath school that morning, for the women 
were preparing food, and the men ammunition. At one- 
thirty, p. m., we were ready for the march, and started, expect- 
ing to be attacked before Monday morning; but in the provi- 
dence of God, we were disappointed, and the main body of the 
expedition are now at home. Last week, we had a pretty severe 
battle down the river about eighteen miles. We live in jeop- 



148 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

ardy every hour, and we need your prayers, and the prayers 
of all good people." 

Later in the year Mr. Nutting thus described the situation : 
"The flower of our youth are now in the army; and so hearty 
has been the response to the call of our country, that there are 
not left men enough, even with the help of the ubiquitous 
reapers, properly to harvest the grain. There are sensible 
gaps in our congregation. The prayer meeting lacks some of 
its ornaments, and the church misses some of its members. 
We had again begun to stir in the matter of a church building, 
but, with great reluctance, we shall have to defer once more." 

Brother O. French, of Knoxville, wrote: "In addition to 
former trials, and discouragements connected with this field, 
we are now feeling, in common with other sections of the 
country, the sad effects of the civil war which is sweeping like 
a tornado through this fair land. Some four hundred volun- 
teers, including a company of Home Guards, which is now in 
active service in Missouri, have gone to the war from this 
county which has a population of only about sixteen thousand 
with three thousand voters." 

These are samples of communications from our Iowa fields, 
telling of the mustering of troops, the marching of men to the 
seat of war, the sad farewells, the depletions of families, 
churches and communities, and the thousand incidents con- 
nected with the first year of the war. Of course, church exten- 
sion was at a standstill. Only Civil Bend, which was really 
a reorganization, and Davenport Edwards, another reorgani- 
zation, and Ulster, a branch of the Rockford Church, were 
reported as the new organizations of the year. 

The first Congregational Church of Davenport was organ- 
ized in 1839. Rev. G. F. Magoun was the last pastor of this 
first church. He began in 1855. Under his ministry, there 
were repeated revivals and large accessions to the member- 
ship which ran up to two hundred and fifty. The church lot 
was increased in size, and plans adopted for a large edifice. 



IN THE WAR TIME, 1861-1865 149 

In 1859 came the financial crash, and the church was pros- 
trated. The load was so heavy that the people gave it up in 
despair, and in 1860, the church virtually disbanded, after a 
prosperous existence of twenty-one years. "For almost a 
year, the church was closed, mute witness of hard times, 
financially and spiritually." How complete the collapse of 
the church was is seen in the following record: "Rev. William 
Windsor, sent out by the Home Missionary Society, organized 
the Edwards Church with twenty-six members, August 17, 
1861." Only twenty-six out of a membership of two hundred 
and fifty! Mr. Windsor was familiar with Davenport. He 
had graduated there from Iowa College in 1854. In the five 
years of his pastorate, he gathered in over one hundred, 
brought the church to self-support, and raised the salary from 
four hundred dollars to one thousand dollars. 

The war brought special hardship to our missionaries and 
pastors. Superintendent Guernsey wrote: "There is bread 
enough and to spare. None of our brethren are suffering for lack 
of such things as our soil has so abundantly produced. But 
many of them are without a dollar with which to provide 
other necessaries for the table; and the winter's cold has 
found not a few, together with their wives and little ones, 
unprovided with winter clothing. An excellent brother who 
has grown old in the missionary service, wrote me a few weeks 
ago, to say that he had only his summer clothing to wear, and 
asking if I had at my disposal any clothing with which to 
supply his need. There was no word of complaint, no breath 
of conscious hardship. He concluded by saying, ' If you have 
nothing, let this be as though it had not been written. ,,, 

The wife of a missionary thus sets forth her husband's 
need: "When you were with us, you mentioned that sometimes 
articles of clothing were left with you for disposal among the 
families of home missionaries. We have been hoping for some 
time to receive a draft from the Society, but the state of the 
treasury is such that it may be delayed much longer,' and as 



150 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Mr. M. is really suffering for winter clothing, it has 
occurred to me that you might possibly have on hand some 
articles which you would send him. He is reduced to his last 
pair of pants, which are very thin, and already patched in 
several places. He is obliged to wear his delaine study gown 
to do all his outdoor work and errands about town, for his old 
working coat has been mended till but little of the original 
is to be seen, and lately it has quite given out. He has but 
one vest, and that a second hand one, much worn." These 
are samples of communications to the superintendent in those 
days; and indeed superintendents of later days were not at 
all strangers to like appeals. 

If the reader had known Father Hurlbut, as the writer 
knew him, his eyes would fill with tears as mine do now, as I 
copy what he wrote to the Home Missionary secretaries in 
the fall of 1861: "Since my commission expired, I have had 
very little income. The old stock at hand was not large, and 
the barrel for a long time has seemed to be empty; and yet my 
wife has been able, every day, to scrape up a little to make 
another cake. So we have lived for months past, but how, 
I can hardly tell. If I were worthy, as the widow of old, I 
should think it was lasting, as her cruse of oil did, by divine 
special care!" Then he speaks of the benefaction of home 
missions as "good news from a far country, cold water to a 
thirsty soul, strength to the weary, hope to the faint, health 
to the sick; what a solace and comfort in our straitened 
circumstances!" A noble, gifted, gracious, guileless man, 
this Rev. Joseph Hurlbut of Fort Atkinson. The burying- 
ground of the little village is hallowed by his ashes. 

The work of the churches this year was greatly interrupted 
but not wholly suspended. Some of the enterprises begun 
before the shot at Sumter were finished after that event. 
Brother Adams dedicated a fine building at Decorah, and 
Father Windsor a more humble structure at New Oregon. 
Superintendent Guernsey reported the dedications: "Sat- 



IN THE WAR TIME, 1861-1865 151 

urday evening the ladies are at the church, with a few of 
the men, putting on the one hundred and one last finishing 
touches. Father Hurlbut of Fort Atkinson is there, and 
Father Windsor of New Oregon, and Brother Coleman of 
Stacy ville, to rejoice with Brother Adams and assist in the 
dedicatory services." Sunday morning, at the appointed 
hour, "the people gather with glowing faces and elastic steps " 
to the new sanctuary until it is crowded to its utmost capacity. 
Mr. Guernsey preached the sermon, and Father Windsor 
offered the prayer of dedication. Then Brother Adams made 
the financial statement, showing that the building cost $4, 127.87 
and all bills paid, or provided for, lacking only $150. Five 
dollar subscriptions and a collection reached a little beyond 
that amount, and the great task was accomplished. A start 
on the building enterprise was made in the fall of 1858. The 
basement was completed in the fall of 1859. Work on the 
superstructure began in May of 1860, and now in the middle 
of November, 1861, the work was finished. 

The New Oregon dedication was only a week later. The 
finishing touches on Saturday must include the construction 
and setting up of the pews, the cleaning of the room, etc., 
etc. The windows were covered with mortar, putty and paint. 
"Let them alone until the warm weather," said the men, but 
the women said, "No, we don't want to dedicate the dirt." 
The Sabbath was cold, and the air was filled with the flying 
flakes of the first snow of the season. But this was the first 
sanctuary to be dedicated in Howard County, as the church 
was the first organization. The people came from all direc- 
tions and long distances, and the house was full. The super- 
intendent preached the sermon. Father Windsor told the 
story of the beginnings of the church, five years before, when 
there were only four or five cabins in the place, and of the 
building enterprise begun in the spring of 1860. Money sub- 
scriptions were out of the question. Trees were donated; a 
" Bee party " had a frolicsome time, encouraged by the presence 



152 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

and provisions of the ladies, in the felling of the trees; then 
followed a "bee" to prepare the logs for the mill; another 
"bee" to haul the lumber to the church; another with pick 
and spade to quarry the stone from the hillside; another to 
haul the stone; another, with the help of a mason, to put in 
the foundation; another to raise the frame. An old friend 
of the pastor at Dubuque donated the doors and sash; friends 
in Portland, Maine, gave the shingles; Doctor Gulliver's 
church of Norwich, Connecticut, sent out thirteen dollars, 
Deacon Haven of New London, thirty dollars, and the Con- 
gregational Union, two hundred and fifty dollars. 

The cost of the building was about one thousand dollars. 
The shortage at the dedication was about one hundred and 
forty-five dollars, one half of which was raised at the service, 
the balance being assumed by the pastor and the officers of 
the church. Brother Adams of Decorah offered the dedica- 
tory prayer, and this first building of the Vernon Springs- 
New Oregon-Cresco church was completed. How familiar 
this dedicatory service, but each occasion of the sort brings 
fresh enthusiasm, and the story of them never loses its enchant- 
ment. 

Before the first year ends, the bravery of Iowa troops had 
been tested at "Bloody Belmont" and other fields of battle. 
February 16, 1862, Fort Donelson surrenders to Grant. 
April 6 and 7, Grant is victorious, but at fearful cost, at 
Pittsburg Landing; June 26, to July 1 the "seven days' battles 
in Virginia"; September 17, the awful carnage at Antietam; 
so run the dates of the second year of this gigantic conflict. 
The records of Congregational Iowa were records of congre- 
gations depleted, churches suspended or broken up, women 
at work in the field because the men were in the army; Iowa 
soldiers wounded or killed, the bodies of a few of these being 
brought home for burial. 

Rev. G. H. Woodward of Toledo writing of this time said: 
"This new county, which eleven years ago had but eight 



IN THE WAR TIME, 1861-1865 153 

inhabitants, has sent out some two hundred and fifty of her 
sons to the battlefield." 

Brother Hemenway of Salem also wrote: "Many of our 
members are now in the armies of our country. We have 
good representations in the First Iowa Cavalry; the Seventh 
Infantry which suffered so severely at Belmont, Missouri, 
and a full company of the finest drilled soldiers in the Four- 
teenth Infantry. In this company, there are between twenty 
and thirty young men connected with the Salem Sunday school 
and congregation. We invited the whole company to attend 
our Sunday school concert. After the exercises closed they 
formed in front of the house, and gave three cheers for the 
people who worship there; and then three cheers for the 
children of the Sunday school. On the morning of their 
departure, they again formed in front of the church to receive 
some tokens from the school, and take a farewell blessing 
from them and their friends." This was at Salem, settled 
by Quakers, from South Carolina; four-fifths of the popula- 
tion at this time being Quakers, and the Sunday school made 
up largely of the children of Quaker families! "It was diffi- 
cult for these people to keep their anti-slavery and their anti- 
war principles in practical harmony." 

This also from Brother A. J. Drake of Mount Pleasant: 
"In such a time as this, what can we report? All around is 
nothing but the preparation for war, and the excitement and 
confusion of a camp. We are so near the scene of active hos- 
tilities, that it seems as if we could almost hear the thunder 
of the cannon, and look with our own eyes upon 'the garments 
rolled in blood.'" 

A pastor says: "Our boys were decimated at Belmont." 
And another speaks of one of his members as "a prisoner in 
the South since ' Bloody Belmont.'" A missionary in North- 
eastern Iowa writes: "Some thought it strange that I should 
give my consent for my son to go, but I told them that I 
would be ashamed of him, if he did not go. Still, it was one 



154 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

of the severest trials of my life to part with him." Another 
says: "Our last young man in the church leaves us today.' ' 

Mr. Spaulding of Ottumwa wrote: "Every few days, the 
corpse of a soldier is followed to the grave, or is brought to 
the depot to be carried elsewhere for burial. Some are 
brought back sick or wounded, and some who went from us, 
are wounded abroad, and some have fallen in battle. In 
going to aid in the installation of a brother in the ministry, 
the delegation from this church had occasion to pass a point 
where, a little time before, about two thousand men had been 
engaged in deadly conflict, and the railroad tracks had been 
damaged by the effects of the artillery." 

Here is a communication which brings it all back! "One 
of our young men who went to the war has died of the measles 
in the hospital of St. Louis. One of his comrades from here 
went to see him, and found him dead, his couch and clothes 
completely drenched, and those who had the care of him 
asleep!" Haven't I seen every item of this with my own 
eyes, and don't I know the ravages of the measles in the 
army? This poor missionary from northern Iowa goes on to 
tell that his son is sick with the measles and that four of his 
comrades have just been swept away by this scourge. Later 
this boy, too, was dead, and it is all just awful! "War is 
hell!" howbeit, there may be something worse than war. 
So thought the soldiers of the North; so thought the soldiers 
of the South; so thought a million freemen who would set 
the bondmen free, and giving themselves in sacrifice they sang : 

"As he died to make men holy, 
Let us die to make men free, 
For God is marching on." 

Brother Manson of Marion describes the anxiety following 
a battle: "For three weeks after the battle of Pea Ridge, the 
anxiety was intense to get the list of killed and wounded. 
One funeral sermon I have preached, another I expect to 
preach as soon as the friends can meet together. The Ninth 



IN THE WAR TIME, 1861-1865 155 

Iowa Regiment stood in the center of the battle, and more 
than one-third were either killed or wounded. The price of 
liberty is dear." 

A missionary in Southern Iowa was severely criticised by 
some of his people "for praying for our country and volun- 
teers." They said, "We never heard the President prayed 
for until you elected Lincoln." They say, "that we are waging 
an unjust war on the South, and that preachers originated the 
war, and that the preachers have much to answer for, for they 
have caused all these wholesale murders." " Our community," 
he said, "suffered severe losses at the storming of Fort Donel- 
son. Some of our best young men are taken away. From 
this neighborhood, we had eight killed and eighteen wounded. 
The ladies were busy for days scraping lint and making things 
for the comfort of the wounded." So it all comes back, the 
horrors, the antagonisms, the heroism, the sacrifice, the devo- 
tion, the pathos, of that awful, magnificent struggle! 

Another missionary in Southern Iowa tells of the danger 
incurred in his work: "One appointment I have been obliged 
to give up in consequence of the danger attending it. The 
danger became so apparent at one time that the friends of 
free speech came in from places miles distant to protect me. 
When I arrived at the schoolhouse, I found enemies armed to 
prevent my speaking; but the Union element prevailed, and 
I preached, but have not visited the schoolhouse since. The 
leading man among this class is a Cumberland Presbyterian 
preacher. He was in this place a few days ago, and in our 
house of worship, debating the question of the divine origin 
of slavery; and when his sympathizers left the place, they 
went hurrahing for Jeff Davis." 

The record of opposition and disloyalty continues. Another 
missionary from Southern Iowa reported: "After the reverses 
at Richmond, the secessionists among us were greatly em- 
boldened and became quite troublesome. And our people 
were in a constant state of excitement. At a small place five 



156 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

miles distant a recruiting officer was set upon, threatened 
with hanging, and driven from the place. Three of the 
wretches engaged in the assault have been arrested. As a 
consequence their fellow traitors were greatly enraged, and 
made all sorts of threats. We are under the necessity of patrol- 
ling our streets at night, and keeping a sharp lookout. The 
people are in a feverish state of excitement.' ' The Eddyville 
Star had this item: "Twice in Mahaska and once in Marion 
Counties have preachers been driven from their pulpits because 
they prayed for the government and the Union armies.' ' There 
is, however, another view of the situation in Southern Iowa. 
The Union side was growing stronger every day by the coming 
of refugees from the South, driven out because of their fidelity 
to the government and their opposition to slavery. Many of 
them were compelled to flee for their lives, leaving all their 
possessions behind; a large number of slaves, also taking 
advantage of the unsettled state of things, slipped across the 
border, and found temporary homes in Southern Iowa, the 
Iowa Home Guards being a police protection to all such 
contrabands. 

And still the record of loss and sorrow goes on. A pastor 
says, "A leading man in the church was killed at the head of 
his company at the hard fought battle of Pea Ridge." Another 
pastor writes: "One of our members, a major in the army, was 
severely wounded at Fort Donelson. Another member has 
now three balls in his body received at Belmont." 

William Windsor of Davenport thus tells of the situation: 
"The war has absorbed public attention to the exclusion of 
every other theme. Several regiments were recruited and 
barracked here the past fall and winter. The Sabbath 
morning on which Fort Donelson was surrendered, as I was 
going to church, a dispatch was put into my hands, calling 
for hospital supplies. In accordance with the request, I gave 
notice that the ladies of the congregation would meet in the 
afternoon to prepare lint and bandages for our wounded 



jjiiiiiff *>_ 




IN THE WAR TIME, 1861-1865 157 

soldiers. The consequence was, our church was nearly empty 
at the afternoon service, and in very many houses the after- 
noon of that day was spent by parents and children in scraping 
lint and tearing bandages. By daylight next morning the 
needful supplies were all ready, and were soon on their way to 
Cairo. So many soldiers have been among us, so many 
residents of this town and county are in the war, and the dead 
and wounded are so frequently brought back to us, we feel 
that we are very near the seat of war. I never go down the 
streets but I see cripples in uniform. We all feel proud of 
our state troops, and are assured that if an Iowa regiment 
is in a fight, there will be sure to be a list of killed and wounded 
in that regiment. Two companies of the Iowa 2nd, that 
stormed the intrenchments at Donelson, are from this place.' ' 

Brother Smith reports eighty volunteers from Osage Town- 
ship with two hundred voters. "Some thirty of these have 
left us during the last three months. Mothers, wives, sisters 
and all, begin at last to realize something of the terrible cost 
at which the. war is carried on. A company recently left 
our village on Sabbath morning. I was called upon to say 
something and lead in prayer upon the occasion of their de- 
parture." Father Emerson of Sabula pictures the sorrows 
of the war, describing the soldiers' funerals he has attended; 
but he also paints the glories of patriotic service. The buried 
soldiers belonged to the Second Regiment of Iowa Volunteers, 
" whose gallant bearing on several occasions won the special 
commendation of their commanding general, and whose flag, 
riddled with bullets, was subsequently received by our state 
legislature with pride and satisfaction, and was hung over the 
speaker's chair in the hall of the House of Representatives." 
Iowa troops were with the men of whom Gen. 0. 0. Howard 
said, "I knew that Western men would fight well and nobly, 
but I did not know that they went into battle, and stormed 
strong forts like men on dress parade." 

Other communications from missionaries and others in this 



158 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

war time of 1862 lie before us, asking for a place in our history, 
but they must forever remain unpublished, and hid away 
forever from sight in the files of the Home Missionary. 

There was little but war news for this year. However, the 
work expanded a little. The state was divided into two 
missionary districts, Julius A. Reed, coming back into the 
work from the college, taking the southern half of the state 
while Jesse Guernsey continued in Northern Iowa. This year 
Doctor Magoun was elected President of Iowa College, though 
it was three years before the chair, lacking the wherewithal to 
support it, was ready for him. 

The Minutes show only two churches organized this year, 
the one at Burr Oak, near Decorah, and the other Black 
Hawk, a country church out from Fairfield, and under the wing 
of the Fairfield church. The resolutions of the General Asso- 
ciation this year gave thanks to God for the victories of the fed- 
eral armies, and scarcely less for their defeats which promised 
ultimate success to the national cause. They recognized "the 
wisdom, tenacity of purpose, endurance, philanthropy, honesty 
and honor exhibited by our chief magistrate, which command 
respect, confidence, admiration and love, as for a man of 
extraordinary fitness for his high office in these times of un- 
paralleled trial.' ' 

They also " observed with profound satisfaction the high 
ground taken by Messrs. Grimes and Harlan of the United 
States Senate, and Wilson of the House, on the various ques- 
tions of national concern." They also "rejoice in the progress 
of anti-slavery sentiments," but "deeply deplore the pro- 
slavery sympathies and tendencies still existing," and long 
for "the deliverance for all the oppressed, and for the proc- 
lamation of liberty throughout all the land to all the inhabi- 
tants thereof." 

A Ministerial Relief Fund was for the first time spoken of at 
this meeting, but, as there was no pressing need for such a 
fund just then, and the times were unfavorable for laying 



IN THE WAR TIME, 1861-1865 159 

the foundation of such a fund, action in the matter was 
deferred. 

The Sunday morning Home Missionary prayer meeting, 
led by Secretary Milton Badger of the Home Missionary 
Society, had special mention, as a delightful and impressive 
occasion, and this meeting became one of the established fea- 
tures of the Association. This year the Iowa News Letter, 
edited by Doctor Holbrook, Doctor Magoun, and Superin- 
tendent Guernsey, and published at Dubuque, made its ap- 
pearance to run its course to a finish in 1867. 

" The combat deepens." January 1, 1863, as a war measure, 
Lincoln issued the emancipation proclamation. April 17, 
Fort Sumter was bombarded by the federals. May 2-3, and 
3-4 the battles of Chancellorsville and Fredericksburg. July 
1-3 the great duel at Gettysburg; and July 4 the surrender of 
Vicksburg. Chickamauga and Lookout Mountain in Sep- 
tember and November; and so on to the end of another year 
of carnage and of death. 

The Iowa churches were represented in the conflict. Super- 
intendent Guernsey summarized as follows: "One hundred 
and fifteen churches report but a small fraction less than one- 
fifth of their entire membership in the army." Illinois 
churches reported about one-eighth, and Minnesota one-ninth, 
Iowa one-fifth. "One of our churches has two-thirds of its 
male members in the army; seven have one-half, sixteen have 
one-third, and twenty have one-fourth. Not less than twelve 
hundred and fifty men are reported as having gone to the war 
from the congregations of these one hundred and fifty churches. 
Whole communities have been more than decimated by the 
work of enlist ment." 

This year, 1863, Iowa College was represented in the field 
by the whole Sophomore class, five of the eleven Freshmen, 
and twenty-seven from the preparatory department. There 
were no Junior or Senior classes. 

Asa Turner of Denmark writes : " We have in our community 



160 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

fifteen war widows, whose husbands are in the army, two 
widows indeed, and seventy in the army out of one hundred 
liable to do military duty." 

Brother A. V. House of Glenwood, says: "I have just 
returned from the meeting of our Association. On the way I 
met more women on the road driving teams, and saw more of 
them at work in the fields, than men. They seem to have 
said to their husbands, in the language of a favorite song: 

"Just take your gun and go, 
For Ruth can drive the oxen, John, 
And I can use the hoe." 

Father Chauncey Taylor resigned a son to the service and 
to death, "for the love of a country, united and free." 

"Grief upon grief!" exclaims Brother Keith of Brookfield; 
"several of our best and most promising men have lost their 
lives at the siege of Vicksburg. Out of one family from which 
four enlisted last October, three have died, and the surviving 
one is reported at the point of death." "Out of fifteen young 
men who enlisted at that time, two-thirds are now dead. The 
sorrows of some of these families are overwhelming." There 
is another side, a glow of glory in this awful business. Brother 
Griffith of Old Man's Creek with humble pride thanks God 
for his brave son, a boy of twenty, of whom his commanding 
officer, General Lawler, sending him a commission as first 
Lieutenant, writes: "On the 22nd ult., Sergeant Joseph E. 
Griffith of Company I, 22nd Iowa Infantry, with twelve others 
from the same regiment, scaled the walls of the fort immedi- 
ately in our front, engaged in a hand-to-hand contest with 
twice their number of the enemy, overcame them, killing and 
wounding fifteen, and compelled the rest to surrender. But 
the victory was dearly bought. By twelve o'clock, Sergeant 
Griffith and Private David K. Train, of the same company, 
were all that were left of the twelve who first went in. By 
the explosion of a hand grenade about that time, Sergeant 
Griffith was knocked senseless. On recovery, he ordered his 



IN THE WAR TIME, 1861-1865 161 

prisoners to follow him, and with them passed safely over the 
walls of the fort into our lines, and delivered them into my 
hands." 

Another father's heart is filled with pride, and wrung with 
anguish; and this is his story: "On the 21st of February, my 
only son was laid in a soldier's grave, at Young's Point, near 
Vicksburg. Two years ago this spring, he left the peaceful 
halls of college, then about completing his first year, and 
entered the 'Iowa First.' He was at the battle of Wilson's 
Creek, and stood within a few paces of Totten's battery during 
the day, and came out with only a slight wound. He returned 
home in the fall with an honorable discharge. When the 
regiment was disbanded, last fall, he enlisted again in the 
30th regiment, and went and maintained himself with credit. 
The Sabbath before he enlisted, he made a public profession 
of religion. Now, he is gone. Nothing has ever occurred 
with me before which so deeply affected the hidden fountain 
of my life. I feel that the sacrifice I have made for the defense 
of my country is great; still I cannot say that I regret doing 
what I could." 

This was one of the men of the "Iowa First" who said to 
General Lyon at Wilson's Creek, "Give us a leader, General, 
and we will follow him unto death." "I will lead you," said 
the great, brave Christian Lyon; and they followed him, many 
of them that great day "unto death." 

Is there no end to the story of the costly sacrifice? Now, 
dear, good, simple-hearted David Knowles, of Long Creek, 
tells how his David died in his country's service: "On the 17th 
of July, my son David was brought to Jefferson Barracks, very 
sick. I heard of it soon, and was there five days after his 
arrival. I borrowed the money; and stayed with him till the 
sixth of August, when he died. He died a happy, and to all 
appearances, an easy death. He had been doing picket duty 
at Vicksburg, and was well until after its surrender; and he 
had done much service to his country during the two years of 

12 



162 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

his soldier life. I brought his remains home and buried them 
on Sabbath, the 9th of August. I shall never cease to thank 
the Lord for permitting me to watch over my son for more than 
two weeks; and to bring his remains home, to lay them beside 
three others of my children buried there.' ' Who can measure 
the sacrifice of fathers and mothers as they laid their sons 
upon the altar of their country! How can we worthily honor 
the brave young men who fell in their country's defense? 
Shall we begrudge the old soldier of the remnant band his little 
stipend purchased by the hazards and hardships of camp and 
battlefield? 

In these war times missionary collections also felt the shock 
of battle. Parson Smith of Osage reports: "Our contribution 
was twelve dollars. Knowing that it would be idle to ask for 
money, I announced to the congregation that grain, store 
goods, or such articles as could be used in a family would be 
accepted. Accordingly, I obtained twenty-five cents in silver, 
one dollar and thirty cents in shinplasters, and the balance in 
grain, etc. The people are as much as ever interested in the 
cause of home missions, but where there is no water in the 
well, nothing can be pumped out." 

At the state association the brethren lamented the continu- 
ance of the rebellion, and the suffering of the war, but resolved 
that the war must continue until the rebellion should be 
crushed. They heartily endorsed the emancipation procla- 
mation as "just, constitutional, and necessary." They were 
profoundly grateful "for the peace and quiet that reigns in 
the state; for the patriotism of our civil and military officers; 
for the heroism of our soldiers; for the liberal generosity of 
our people to the sick and wounded; and especially for the 
increase of humble and fervent prayer in behalf of our afflicted 
nation." 

Iowa College, which had now a president elect, and four 
instructors on the ground, and a few students that had not 
joined the army, was in a special way recognized by the Asso- 



IN THE WAR TIME, 1861-1865 163 

ciation as a child of the churches, and a helper in the work of 
the kingdom; and they pledged to it increased loyalty and 
financial support; and bade good cheer to Doctor Holbrook 
who was then in the East trying to raise two thousand dollars 
for the current expenses of the institution. He had good cheer 
and good success, and raised the two thousand by two Sabbath 
addresses; then he was asked if possible to raise $20,000 for 
endowment, and he returned with cash and pledges to the 
amount of $40,000! 

The push of civilization into the wilderness has here a 
striking illustration. Professor Peck of Oberlin visited 
Grinnell, "a religio-literary colony of Eastern origin." "In 
the middle of the afternoon/' he says, "we reached the end 
of the rail, and here, in a wide prairie, with no house in sight, 
stood the stages which were to take the passengers farther 
west — coaches for Council Bluffs, for Denver, for Salt Lake 
City, for San Francisco; the shuttles which are weaving the 
web which is soon to bind the far East and the far West — 
here they were ! Night brought us to Grinnell, and friends and 
hospitality as warm as love itself. The next day we visited 
Iowa College, whose building stands on the summit between 
the Mississippi and the Missouri. We found Professor Parker 
presiding at Rhetorical Exercises. As we were hearing the 
essays I saw a huge flock of prairie chickens alight in the 
campus. This, thought I, is Christian enterprise pushing its 
outposts to the wilds of nature." 

Church extension this year was very limited, the only new 
organization being the little church at Fairfax. Church 
building enterprises were for the most part abandoned; the 
Bradford building, however, began to materialize, the founda- 
tions being laid and the sills framed and put in place. "Our 
only real ground for encouragement in the future, humanly 
speaking," says the pastor, "lies in those waiting sills." 

Among the many pastoral changes of the year, we note that 
Harvey Adams of the Band, after three years of service at 



164 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Council Bluffs, returned with joy to his people at Farmington, 
and received from them a hearty welcome home; and now, to 
hold him fast, they install him as their pastor. B. A. Spauld- 
ing leaving very reluctantly a pastorate of twenty years at 
Ottumwa, sought rest by change and recuperation in the 
bracing climate of Wisconsin, locating at Eau Claire. This 
year, too, we welcomed Joseph Pickett to our ministry, and 
to the pastorate at Mount Pleasant. October 31 of this year, 
there was a notable gathering at the Muscatine parsonage, as 
pastor and people celebrated the twentieth anniversary of 
Mr. Robbins' pastorate. The record of his call in 1843 reads 
"Rev. A. B. Robbins was invited to officiate as pastor of the 
church for the present." It would be well if all pastors should 
have such a temporary engagement! "For the present" 
meant twenty years, and forty years, and nearly fifty years. 
One of the love tokens of the occasion was a one hundred dollar 
bill. Mr. Robbins concluded his remarks by saying: "On 
the whole, making due allowance for the kind and easy judg- 
ment of an affectionate people, I owe, under God, whatever 
there is good in a long pastorate, and such unbroken relations, 
mainly to my cherished love of liberty, my hatred of intem- 
perance and oppression, and my indifference as to my staying 
here or anywhere else unless I could have the privilege of think- 
ing as I pleased, and speaking what I think, responsible only 
to my master Christ. It has sometimes been a rough road to 
walk, but in it, one by one, there have gathered about us hearts 
as true as steel, and men and women dearer than brother or 
sister by natural birth, can possibly be. To not a few such I 
am glad this night to give a fresh and warm greeting, and 
congratulate you that the work of freedom and truth goes 
bravely on in our land and world, so far ahead of twenty years 
ago." 

The days of 1864 were very gloomy, and the price of patri- 
otism was very great. March 12, was the beginning of the 
disastrous Red River expedition; April 13, the Fort Pillow 



IN THE WAR TIME, 1861-1865 165 

massacre; July 22-28 costly victories before Atlanta; then the 
victorious march to the sea, and the end was in sight. Several 
of the Iowa pastors were doing service of one sort or another 
in the army. Father Sands of Keosauqua had gone to Texas 
as chaplain of the 19th Iowa Regiment. Father Todd of Tabor 
was chaplain of the 46th. Chamberlain, Pickett, and Salter 
were in the South in the "Christian Commission service." 
D. N. Bordwell returned after two years of service as chaplain 
and accepted a call to Charles City. In his book entitled 
" Sixty Years," Doctor Salter gives an account of his six weeks' 
experience in tent and hospital and the open field as he fol- 
lowed Sherman's army in his approaches to Atlanta. 

Hillsboro and Salem reported every member of each church, 
liable to military duty, in the Union army. 

Father Windsor reports: "A few days ago we bade farewell 
to the last of forty-nine volunteers. This fills our full quota 
for the county under the last call of the President. There is 
a growing conviction in our community that unless the rebellion 
is put down, we lose all. We hope we see 1 ght breaking in 
the distance." 

Companies began to come back on furlough. J. H. Windsor 
of Marion reports: "A few days since, our citizens welcomed 
back for thirty days a company of veteran volunteers. The 
ladies, with only a few hours notice, prepared a bountiful enter- 
tainment for the soldiers. The company was recruited almost 
entirely from Marion and vicinity. Two years and a half 
ago they went out one hundred and one strong ; they returned 
twenty-five effective men. The ladies of Boston presented 
this regiment with a flag after the battle of Pea Ridge. That 
flag was returned to its donors riddled with shot, and baptized 
with the blood of its unflinching defenders." These ladies 
sent the regiment another flag, covered with the names of the 
battlefields "won by the valor, and made sacred by the lives, 
of brave men." 

At the meeting of the State Association, held again at Grin- 



166 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

nell, the brethren rejoiced that the Methodists and Presby- 
terians and other denominations are coming on toward the 
position of Congregationalists respecting the crime of slavery. 
They pledged the President, and their soldier brothers at the 
front, that they would stand by them in the mighty struggle. 
They urged a change in the laws of the state of Iowa which 
were "averse to the equal rights of the colored man." They 
again put in a plea for Iowa College, especially on the ground 
that Home Missionary ministers were greatly needed, and they 
looked to the college for a supply. They resolve to complete 
the fifty thousand ♦ dollar endowment fund, which lacked of 
this amount about ten thousand dollars. The new Welsh and 
German Associations recently organized were received to 
membership at this meeting. 

At the college Commencement this year there were only two 
young men in college classes, and they were too young for 
enlistment. Young ladies hasten from the Commencement 
platform to do the work of their brothers in the harvest field. 
On a tablet in the college chapel are the names of eleven 
students who gave up their lives in the defense of their 
country. 

Evidently the times were a little better, for the very first 
record of the year respecting the Iowa Churches, in the News 
Letter, was a report of a donation party at Decorah, by which 
Brother Adams was enriched to the extent of $139.60; Brother 
0. W. Merrill of Anamosa was overwhelmed by a gift of $100; 
Jesse Guernsey was the victim of a surprise; J. H. Windsor 
of Marion received a purse of $83; Brother Fifield of Cedar 
Falls, $110; C. S. Cady of Maquoketa, $110; J. R. Upton of 
Monona, $90; Father Windsor of New Oregon, $90; Father 
Emerson of Sabula, $60, and Brother Coleman of Mitchell 
reported donations of $66 besides twenty-four loads of wood 
"hauled up" to the parsonage. 

There was a perfect epidemic of dedications. The first 
Sabbath of the year. Burr Oak dedicated a building 22 x 40, 



IN THE WAR TIME, 1861-1865 167 

costing $1,100. February 21, the Webster City people dedi- 
cated a church building, transformed into a sanctuary from 
an old school building. April 7, Eddyville dedicated a sanc- 
tuary costing about $3,000. April 14, there was a dedication 
at Anamosa, O. W. Merrill pastor, Superintendent Guernsey 
preaching the sermon. April 20, Denmark dedicated for the 
third time. The first building was the old "cradle of Congre- 
gationalism in Iowa," in which the first church, and also the 
General Association and Denmark Association were organized, 
Denmark Academy founded, and seven of the Band ordained. 
The second meeting-house was " burned by an incendiary/ ' 
"through secession's malignity and spite," the people said, 
but later it was found that a Denmark citizen was the culprit, 
"the emissaries of slavery from Missouri" having nothing 
to do with it. This building, now in use, cost about $4,500. 
Doctor Thatcher of Keokuk, preached the sermon, and Doctor 
Salter offered the prayer. These "D. D." affixes did not 
belong to these brethren at this time. Salter's came within 
three months, and he enjoyed the distinction for a time of 
being "the only Doctor of Divinity among the Congregational 
ministers of Iowa." At the time of the dedication Father 
Turner said: "We have raised for our three meeting-houses 
and the Academy, what would average about $3,000 a year 
for twenty-five years. This has been a heavy draft on a 
community of farmers who earn all by the sweat of their 
brows." 

In September of this year there was great rejoicing among 
the people of Manchester over their first sanctuary. And 
no wonder, for all these eight years services had been held in 
all sorts of places, private dwellings, the rude schoolhouse, 
halls, store buildings, etc., etc. " It would be utterly impossible 
for me," said Pastor Loring, "to describe the unbounded joy 
of all our little Zion and the evident gratification of all the 
lovers of good society at this happy termination of the 
unwearied efforts of the last eighteen months. We have now a 



168 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

house of our own. It is commodious and comely. It has a 
tower, belfry, spire, and accommodations* for three hundred 
persons. It has cost in cash about $3,000; all of which has 
been raised in this place with the exception of $300 generously 
given us by the Congregational Union." 

Among the pastoral changes of the year, the following may 
be noted: Doctor Holbrook now accepted a call to Homer, 
New York. All of these twenty-two years of ministry in the 
Middle West, with the exception of three years in Chicago, 
were in Dubuque. He began with almost nothing; he left a 
church with a fine property and a membership of two hundred 
and twenty-one. Nearly half of these, however, were just 
then absent, the men, for the most part, "at the front." 

From October of this year, for a good many years, Dr. 
Lyman Whiting, from Providence, Rhode Island, might be 
found, under "the church eaves," or in the sanctuary, or on 
the streets of Dubuque, an honored citizen of Iowa, welcomed 
in all our churches. 

Doctor Magoun resigned his work at Lyons to accept the 
Presidency of Iowa College, but he spent a number of months 
abroad before entering upon the active duties of the office. 
Probably one of the occasions of his resignation so early was 
the death of his wife, Abbie Anne Hyde Magoun, in February 
of this year. She was born at Bath, Maine, October 17, 1824, 
and was in the fortieth year of her life when she was called to 
her reward. She was a gentle, modest, winning woman, but 
withal a woman of great courage and fortitude. She met the 
privations of her western home missionary life with a brave 
and uncomplaining spirit, and did well her part in all the sta- 
tions she was called to occupy. " Her death was a sweet climax 
of her life, full of gentleness and peace. She had no prepara- 
tion to make, for she was ready, always ready." 

One of the achievements of 1864, was the completion of the 
"Little Brown Church in the Vale." "Forty and six years" 
was Solomon's temple in building, but the time consumed in 



IN THE WAR TIME, 1861-1865 169 

the erection of this Bradford temple was only forty-three years 
short of this. 

"It positively tires me," says Mr. Nutting, "to think of 
the tugging and lifting by which it has been done. Our 
town was at the lowest ebb in business matters. Within a 
year more than one hundred dollars walked off by removals. 
The crash of 1857 was succeeded by the 'Stumptail' panic in 
which a great part of the currency evaporated into paper 
rags." But lots were secured in the midst of fine old oak trees; 
trees in the timber were donated for the dimension lumber; 
these were cut, and drawn to the saw-mill by volunteer labor; 
stone was donated, and quarried, and brought to the building, 
and laid in the wall "without money and without price," and 
without any account of cost. Then there came a "Selah," 
a "solemn pause" of very long duration; and some of the 
croakers said it never would be finished. But it was finished. 
Subscribers subscribed again. Doctor Todd of Pittsfield, 
Massachusetts, through the pastor, got interested in the 
enterprise, and interested his people to the amount of $110. 
December 29, the building, 26 x 50, and costing about $2500 
was ready for dedication. In a way the occasion was dis- 
appointing. The day was so stormy that not many of the 
brethren who were to take part in the services were present. 
Brother D. N. Bordwell, of Charles City, preached the sermon. 
There was no money to be raised. A year later, this building 
began to be known as "The Little Brown Church in the Vale." 

Dr. W. S. Pitts of Fredericksburg came over to Bradford 
to teach an old-fashioned singing-school. In a recent letter, 
Mr. Nutting says: "He boarded at Mr. John Bird's, whose 
daughter Celia, a child of about fourteen, was a worshipper 
at, and almost of, the little church, which was the first and 
only one she had ever seen, and in whose erection she had 
assisted to the best of her childish ability. She was often 
talking about the dear church, and the song, I think, was 
written primarily to please her; it at once proved to be so 



170 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

popular, that the Doctor sent it to a publisher.' ' The song 
has been published in several languages, and it has been sung 
the world around. 

There's a church in a valley by the wildwood, 

No lovelier place in the dale; 
No spot is so dear to my childhood, 

As the little brown church in the vale. 

CHORUS. 

Oh, come, come, come, come, 
Come to the church by the wildwood, 

Oh, come to the church in the dale; 
No spot is so dear to my childhood, 

As the little brown church in the vale. 

How sweet on a bright Sabbath morning 

To list to the clear ringing bell; 
Its tones so sweetly are calling, 

Oh, come to the church in the vale. 

CHORUS. 

There, close by the church in the valley, 

Lies one that I loved so well; 
She sleeps, sweetly sleeps, neath the willow; 

Disturb not her rest in the vale. 

CHORUS. 

There, close by the side of that loved one, 
'Neath the tree where the wild flowers bloom, 

When the farewell hymn shall be chanted, 
I shall rest by her side in the tomb. 

CHORUS. 

This year the Grinnell building was enlarged "to accom- 
modate an additional one hundred persons," and there were 
an additional one hundred persons to be accommodated 

The new churches of the year number three; Waukon, des- 
tined soon to die; Lansing Ridge, German; and Pacific, which 
was little more than a name. Only Lansing Ridge had a 
mission and is now alive. This church has done excellent work 
among the Germans of Alamakee County. 



IN THE WAR TIME, 1861-1865 171 

Now we come to the momentous events of 1865. Sherman 
continued his march from the sea to Washington; Lincoln was 
again inaugurated; Lee and Grant met at Appomattox; then 
the assassin's fatal shot. And then 



" Johnnie comes marching home again, hurrah 



f" 



And with him all the other boys, all that were left of them. 
We old gray beards cannot forget that we belong to "only a 
remnant of a generation"; the war deprived us of our full 
complement of men. At the beginning of the year, nobody 
could tell what the year would bring forth, though some thought 
they saw the beginning of the end. Enlistments were still 
going on. The antagonisms, animosities, sufferings, sorrows, 
sacrifices, horrors of the war, were unabated. Pastor Loring 
of Manchester was sent to Cairo to see a sick soldier of his 
parish; he brought him home to his mother, dead. Later his 
own son fell, "charging the batteries of the enemy on the 
second day of the great battle before Nashville, and was 
buried on the spot where he fell." "Parental affection could 
not rest until his remains were recovered and buried in our 
cemetery at home. I had the sad office of finding his soldier 
grave, and taking him therefrom with my own hands. On 
our arrival home, Mr. Guernsey preached a very impressive 
sermon to a congregation that more than filled our meeting- 
house, and we laid one of the best of boys in his last resting 
place to await the morning of the resurrection." Brother 
Apthorp writes: "I have been called to the sad service of 
burying one of my three sons who were in the army. He was 
lieutenant in a colored company, and in a charge on a part 
of Hood's army, near Decatur, Alabama, was shot and killed 
instantly. His men carried his body from the field "in a 
shower of balls," several shots striking him as he was being 
borne away. His body was sent to Davenport, where I had 
the satisfaction of seeing his face, then I took him to Port 
Byron, and buried him by his mother," 



172 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Brother C. S. Cady suffered a like cup of sorrow. His son, 
day after day, in the battle before Atlanta, escaped unharmed, 
but fell a victim of disease, and another Iowa home was filled 
with anguish. 

Then there was a day of tumultuous joy throughout Iowa and 
all the North. The tidings reached Iowa early Monday morn- 
ing, April 9. In the cities, Dubuque, and other places, the 
clamor of joy was heard at midnight, and the streets were soon 
alive, and ablaze with shouts and music, and bells and torches 
and bonfires and illuminated windows. Lee had surrendered 
to Grant! The war was over! 

Four days later, how changed the scene! Tidings had come 
at which strong men turned pale, and some of them cried like 
children. They deserted their toil, and gathered in silent 
groups to rehearse in undertones the startling news. The 
President was dying, shot by an assassin! The flags, which 
but a few hours ago fluttered in joy, now drooped. Every 
loyal heart was pierced and bleeding. A nation was in tears. 
The whole world now had a good word for the immortal 
Lincoln! Well do I remember that dreadful morning when a 
fellow college student called across the street, " Lincoln has 
been assassinated!" and I blurted back, "You lie! you lie!" 
but I knew that he told the awful truth. 

And, oh, that doleful Saturday in which we draped the 
church; and that still more doleful Sunday when the preachers, 
poor men, tried to interpret the providence of God, and to 
comfort us by suggesting that Andrew Johnson would be better 
for reconstruction, that Lincoln would have been too easy with 
the rebels, but that Johnson would bring the leaders to con- 
dign punishment. In Iowa the grief was well-nigh universal, 
as it was heartfelt and sincere. The churches generally, fell 
in with the recommendations of the governor that public 
services should be held in memory of the martyred President. 

Today, so far removed from the bitter antagonisms of the 
war, one is a good deal surprised and disappointed and really 



IN THE WAR TIME, 1861-1865 173 

shocked by the tone of the resolutions this year adopted by 
the brethren of the State Association. They indeed review 
the events of the years of the war, "in humble and grateful 
amazement at what God has wrought," and they make refer- 
ence to the President in the tender tones of affection, but this 
in close connection with scathing maledictions upon those who 
were the cause of his untimely taking off. The brethren 
avowed in their resolutions that they "mean to perpetuate 
their reprobation of those dwelling among us who have been 
persistently resisting God's work, sowing discord and disloyalty 
embarrassing the nation in its great struggle to extinguish 
oppression, and to confirm civil liberty to mankind." They 
also declared in favor of "a full enfranchisement of the negro," 
fearful that if that is refused the nation will suffer fresh retri- 
butions. They also called for the punishment to treason; and 
declared that "indiscriminate mercy to leading traitors is 
so much wrong and cruelty to the nation imperilled by their 
crimes," and they "solemnly invoke that justice be made so 
to assert itself upon the masters in this enormous perfidy, 
that all future treason shall have unequivocal warning before 
it — " the plain English of this rhetoric being, "Let Jeff 
Davis and a lot of his fellow conspirators and traitors, be 
hanged." 

Probably every one of those who that day voted for this 
resolution lived to see the day when they were glad that their 
advice was not followed. They also suggested to the Congre- 
gational brethren of England, Wales and Canada that their 
expressions of sympathy were accepted, but that they came 
rather late in the day; the last, long resolution, closing in 
these words: "We accept, however, their expressions of fra- 
ternal sympathy, late as they are in coming, and trust that 
in the work among the freedmen, laid upon us as a result of 
the war, we shall have their outspoken and cooperative prayers 
and efforts." 

Materially, in this year, 1865, Iowa had prosperous times. 



174 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

The crops were good and the farmers get "war prices" for their 
produce. There was another epidemic of donations. Dubuque 
presented Doctor Whiting with an album of " familiar faces" 
and every face was that of a United States greenback. Brother 
Adams of Decorah was still more bountifully remembered by 
his people, the donation amounting to $220; and Brother 
S. P. Sloan of McGregor, had a donation of $400; and it 
seems as if about every Congregational preacher in the state 
was the happy victim of a donation party. 

The new churches began again to multiply. Waverly was 
first for this year, Rev. E. S. Palmer the first pastor. Grove 
City came next, Reuben Gaylord of Nebraska the moderator 
of the council. By and by a railroad will come along and Grove 
City will move up to Atlantic. Next was Chester Center, a 
suburb of Grinnell. " Principal Buck" just introduced to 
Iowa College was scribe of the council and Doctor Magoun 
preached the sermon. For years instructors in the college 
supplied this church, Professor C. W. Clapp being recognized 
as its pastor. Monroe was next; it lived and thrived for 
twenty years, then became extinct. 

Ames has not become extinct. There was a union Sunday 
school on the "College Farm," as the place was called, as early 
as 1863. In 1864 services were held at irregular intervals. 
In 1865 the Northwestern railroad reached the place and the 
station named in honor of Hon. Oakes Ames of Massachusetts. 
In the autumn of this year, Rev. John White of Woodstock, 
Connecticut, coming West for his health, arrived and held his 
first service in the depot, his pulpit being a dry goods box. 
Mr. White was promptly called to the pastorate, and the church 
at once began a house of worship. This was dedicated in 
September, 1866, Doctor Magoun preaching the sermon. 
The bell, still doing service, is the gift of Mr. Ames. 

College Springs, organized this year, soon became known 
as an "anti" church, opposed to liquor, tobacco, secret socie- 
ties, etc. For about a quarter of a century it had a place and 



IN THE WAR TIME, 1861-1865 175 



a mission; then, in an over-churched community concluded 
that it could best " glorify God in dying." 

New Providence, organized this year, at length, in the 
interests of Christian unity, resigned in favor of the Quakers. 

The " Independent Presbyterian church" of Wittenberg 
developed into Congregationalism; and the Quincy church 
was organized October 31. It soon lost its life, to live again 
in the Corning church. 

In this year of returning prosperity, Marion, Decorah, 
Anamosa and Eddyville came to self-support, and the Daven- 
port church raised $5,000 to pay debts and to secure a fine 
property. This was a great achievement. Five hundred 
dollars of this amount was from the Congregational Union, 
secured by the bequest of Charles Ward of Newton Center, 
Massachusetts, who fell at the battle of Gettysburg. 

Two valiant soldiers of the cross this year laid off their 
armor — Ozro French, a noble missionary at home and in the 
foreign field, died at Blairstown, September 28; and Alfred 
Wright, after fifteen years of service in Missouri and nineteen 
years in Iowa, died November 18, and sleeps beneath a vener- 
able oak in the old churchyard at Durango. 



Chaptee IX 
ALONG THE RAILROAD LINES, 1866-1869 

From the beginning the Pilgrims of Iowa, with some poetic 
license, could take up the song of Whittier's " Kansas Emi- 
grants": 

We cross the prairie as of old 

The Pilgrims crossed the sea, 
To make the West as they the East 

The homestead of the free 

We go to plant her common schools 

On distant prairie swells, 
And give the Sabbath of the wild 

The music of her bells. 

Our Pilgrims came to Iowa with the high purpose of the Pil- 
grim fathers in their hearts, but until about the sixties "com- 
mon schools" and " Sabbath bells" on " distant prairie swells" 
were out of the question, for the open prairies were not con- 
sidered, as indeed they were not then, fit places of abode. 
In early times an exploring party from Burlington gave it 
as their opinion that the prairie about Danville would never 
be settled! Passing on further out they found streams 
running toward the West and concluded that they had struck 
the waters of the Missouri! Much later Father Turner said, 
" Probably western Iowa will never amount to much. They 
say the timber gives out a little beyond Oskaloosa." 

From the beginning, in 1833, up to 1856, the settlements 
were along the streams which afforded wood and water and 
shelter from the fierce Northwesters of the winter. Wood, 
water and windbrakes located the population of early Iowa; 

176 



ALONG THE RAILROAD LINES, 1866-1869 177 

but in 1856 the railroads, beginning to push across the state, 
began to determine the location of the new settlements, and 
a good many other things, and to shift settlements already 
started; and from 1856 until now, the railroads have largely 
determined the locations of our churches. 

It hardly need be said that the war pretty effectually put a 
stop to railroad building. The Chicago, Burlington and 
Quincy halted for a time at Ottumwa, but reached Albia 
in 1865. In 1865 the Rock Island got as far west as Kellogg. 
The Northwestern during the war time wormed itself along 
from Marshalltown to Boone. The Illinois Central for a 
time rested from its extensions at Cedar Falls, but in the 
fall of 1865 was at Ackley. 

Now, in 1866, the Burlington, the Rock Island and the 
Northwestern were making all possible speed to reach the 
Missouri. Churches were springing up along all the lines 
and the regions contiguous, the churches, for the most part, 
keeping a little in advance. It need not be said that the 
roads were friendly to the church planting and church build- 
ing enterprises. The following is in a letter from a Superin- 
tendent of Home Missions: 

One at least of our railroads seems to be a sort of auxiliary Home Mis- 
sionary Society. Not only do its directors accord to our missionaries 
the privilege of riding at half-fare, but its depot buildings along the whole 
line are used, or have been, as places for holding religious services on the 
Sabbath. The road referred to is the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad 
(the early name for the Rock Island). I preached a few weeks ago to a 
crowded audience in the passenger room in the depot at West Liberty 
with a flour barrel surmounted by a cheese-box for a pulpit. 

This was nothing exceptional. Literally hundreds of depots 
in Iowa have been used for religious services. 

Reuben Gaylord, who had Western Iowa as a part of his 
home missionary bishopric, returning to Council Bluffs after 
a tour of exploration up the Boyer Valley in anticipation of 
the Northwestern Road, wrote: 

13 



178 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

The Union Pacific Railway is now built two hundred and sixty miles 
and will get half way to the mountains before winter. The Northwestern 
is completed to Dennison, and will reach this place by spring. The track 
is begun on the Council Bluffs and St. Joseph Road, and will be finished 
in twelve months. Mr. Phelps, who is the head man of this road, offers to 
head a subscription paper with one hundred dollars for the support of 
Rev. P. M. Piatt, for six months, to labor in a field along the fine of the 
road in the Missouri Bottom. He also offers a lot in Bartlett, and five 
hundred dollars toward the building of a church, providing that one thou- 
sand dollars more can be raised. 

As here predicted the Northwestern did reach the Bluffs 
in the spring of 1867; the "Q" was only a few months behind, 
and the Rock Island arrived in 1869. The speed of these 
three roads "on the home stretch" is accounted for by the 
fact that the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific had effected 
a junction, thus forming a through line to the coast, and each 
road was anxious to secure its share of the western traffic. 

Writing about this time from Council Bluffs, Julius A. 
Reed says: "One railroad has reached the Missouri; a second 
will reach it in a few weeks; a third and a fourth within a 
few months, and possibly within five years a sixth and a sev- 
enth, all, in connection with the Union Pacific competing for 
the trade of China and Japan. We have already one thousand, 
five hundred miles of railroad in operation, and it is cer- 
tain that in ten years, all parts of Iowa will have easy access 
to markets and our largest prairies will be sought for culti- 
vation." Mr. Reed had at last come to the conclusion that 
the prairies of Iowa will be inhabited. 

Father Hurlbut of Ft. Atkinson writes: "As I sit in my 
study, morning, noon, and evening, I listen to the whistle 
of the cars as they bear their heavy burdens from the Father 
of Waters to Calmar, five miles from us, and to Conover, 
eight miles away, and the present terminus of the road. The 
sound of that whistle is a most welcome and cheering sound, 
not because it quickens the zeal of some active financier and 
promotes the interest of commerce merely, but because, 



ALONG THE RAILROAD LINES, 1866-1869 179 

with all its faults, it bears along to us a sanctified civilization. 
Am I weak because my ear, so often saluted with profane 
oaths and blasphemies, is delighted with that whistle? The 
old rubbish is passing away, and new and better materials 
are coming in." 

The new churches of 1866 were as follows: Boonesboro, Big 
Rock, Rome, Clinton, New York, Belle Plaine, Nashua, 
Webster and New Jefferson. This was the Jefferson of Greene 
County then called New Jefferson by our people because they 
had a Jefferson church in Jefferson County. Clinton is in 
a special way a creation of the Northwestern road. Leaving 
Lyons in the lurch by crossing the river three miles below, a 
division station was established there, around which has gath- 
ered a city of ten thousand inhabitants. Belle Plaine has 
been a " Railroad town" from the beginning, and the church 
has been largely composed of the families of " railroad men." 

Boonesboro church began to be because the Northwestern 
was passing by. Previous to the organization, Superinten- 
dent Guernsey had prospected the field. He inquired of every 
man he met whether there were any Congregationalists in 
the place. He might as well have spoken in an unknown 
tongue. They did not know what a Congregationalist might 
be; never heard of such a thing. One man thought there 
was such a congregation in town but it turned out to be a 
band of "seceders." At last a Congregationalist was found. 
He had come from Massachusetts by way of San Francisco. 
Sunday morning he went through the streets crying out at 
the top of his voice: " Congregational preaching at the Meth- 
odist church today at eleven o'clock." The people turned 
out in large numbers and soon a church was founded. Rev. 
0. C. Dickerson was for many years the pastor. 

The Nashua church was started by the Bradford pastor, 
though this was the death knell of the Bradford church, 
five of the eight charter members coming from Bradford, 
because the Illinois Central was headed up the Cedar, and 



180 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Nashua, at the crossing of the river, was sure to be a station 
on the road. 

The Iowa News Letter reported a church organized at 
Iowa City this year, July 31, with eighty members, fifty-five 
of these coming, with their pastor, Rev. J. A. D. Hebard, 
from the New School Presbyterian church, and twenty from 
the defunct Congregational church of the place; but Doctor 
Bullock, pastor of the church for eleven years, contends that 
the Congregational church was not defunct, and that the 
reorganization in 1866 did not disturb the " historic conti- 
nuity" of the church, and that the proper date of the organi- 
zation is that recorded in our Minutes, November 26, 1856. 
The reorganization was recognized by a council, Doctor Coch- 
ran of Grinnell, moderator, and Doctor Magoun of the college 
preaching the sermon. 

The dedications this year, 1866, were numerous, and they 
were mostly along the railroad lines. Rockford dedicated 
June 21, a building costing about two thousand dollars, 
Superintendent Guernsey preaching the sermon. Iowa Falls 
dedicated a fine stone building August 16, Mr. Guernsey 
assisting at this service also. This old building forms a part 
of the present structure. October 7, Ames dedicated; and J. B. 
Grinnell was present and made a donation of twenty-five dollars 
to help pay last bills; and the last bills were paid. Tipton 
dedicated December 9, a four thousand dollar building, Doctor 
Roy of Chicago preaching the sermon. December 19, 
Monona dedicated, Rev. S. P. Sloan of McGregor preaching 
the sermon. The building is 34 x 50, and the cost $3,200. 
December 23, Earlville dedicated, Superintendent Guernsey 
officiating, the cost of the building, two thousand dollars. 

There were dedications this year, also, at Ft. Atkinson, 
Father Joseph Hurlbut pastor, and at the Dubuque German 
church. The building at Grinnell was enlarged for the third 
time, its measurements now being 50 x 90; and the church 
membership had gone beyond the three hundred mark. 



ALONG THE RAILROAD LINES, 1866-1869 181 

This year parsonages began to appear, one at Otho, a com- 
fortable house, with a five-acre lot, doing good service up to 
this day; and another at Newton, long ago superseded by 
a better building. 

Davenport, Oskaloosa and Ottumwa churches this year 
assumed self-support; Father Windsor left a ten years* service 
at New Oregon to take up the pastorate at Keosauqua; and 
E. B. Turner, of the Band, began a notable service of eleven 
years in Missouri as Superintendent of Home Missions, in 
which time of reconstruction, the two churches of the state 
were increased to more than sixty. 

This year also marked the development of Tabor Academy 
into Tabor College. The Academy began in 1857 with seven- 
teen students. Three times during the war, every member 
of the school liable to military duty enlisted, and some of the 
advanced classes were broken up, but the school was never 
closed and soon the enrollment was fifty, sixty, and a hundred. 
The number of those who have been Tabor students now runs 
up into the thousands. President Brooks presided over this 
institution from its beginning in 1857 until 1896. In his 
day twenty-four graduates of the college became ministers 
and nine found their life-work in foreign missionary fields 
while hundreds of lives have been enriched and enlarged by the 
influences of this institution. Rev. O. C. Cooley of Glenwood 
testifies: "I think Tabor College is as much needed in the 
Missouri Valley for Christ and his church as Amherst and Wil- 
liams are in Massachusetts, Yale for Connecticut or Grinnell 
for eastern and middle Iowa. The valley is a separate land; 
Tabor is two hundred miles from Grinnell, and of the one 
hundred and seventy-five students in the institution perhaps 
not five would reach any other. It is needed now, and how 
much more hereafter. Railroads are stimulating immijgration 
and now is the time to give this whole region a permanent 
civilization and the institutions of religion." 

It is fitting that close after the name of President Brooks 



182 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

should be placed that of Edwin S. Hill. He was one of the 
seventeen students of the first year of Tabor Academy, and 
was still there at the breaking out of the war. Enlisting in 
the Fourth Iowa Infantry, and engaging in all its battles, 
this swarthy, wiry youth came up from the trenches of Vicks- 
burg and from other grim experiences of war, to enlist in a 
longer and more strenuous campaign, staying by the guns 
at Atlantic (incorporating Grove City) for forty years, 
one of the most brilliant soldiers that ever battled for his 
country and for the kingdom of God. In this his only pas- 
torate he officiated at seven hundred and fifty-nine weddings 
and about two thousand funerals and left the church with a 
membership of three hundred and three. 

Of the thousands of splendid laymen of Congregational 
Iowa, only a few names can appear in this volume. Let a 
little paragraph help perpetuate the memory of Deacon 
Samuel Cotton, a descendant of John Cotton, the first pastor 
of the first church in Boston. His father Roland Cotton, 
was the lad who brought the news of the battle of Lexington 
to Israel Putnam, who at once donned the regimentals worn 
by him in the French war, mounted his horse and started for 
Boston. 

Mr. Cotton came to Iowa in 1839. The first year out in 
the wilderness of Jackson County he heard only one sermon, 
and that by a traveling Methodist preacher. As soon as he 
was settled in his own house he began to hold Sabbath services, 
which at length grew into the Andrew or Cottonville Church, 
the first to be formed north of the Iowa River. He was one 
of the strong men of the early Pilgrims of Iowa. He came 
to {he end of his useful life, September 23, of this year, 1866. 

In 1867, Superintendent Guernsey of Northern Iowa, 
reviewing ten years of his work, wrote: 

Instead of forty-two Congregational churches, in this portion of our 
state, ten years ago, we have now, eighty-eight. Two of those then exist- 
ing were then self-supporting, and nine of the present number are so. 



ALONG THE RAILROAD LINES, 1866-1869 183 

There were then sixteen houses of worship. There are now, including 
four in progress and nearly completed, forty-seven. Where there were 
thirty-six miles of railroad in working order, there are now over five hun- 
dred and fifty, of which over one hundred have been built during the last 
year. The extension of our several lines of railroad year by year will 
make accessible the fine unoccupied lands of our northwestern border and 
central districts. New communities will spring up; new villages rise 
on the prairie along the tracks of iron, and so our work, with the passing 
of the years, will be ever growing on our hands. 

This year, Rev. G. H. Woodworth, thus reviewed eleven 
years of labor at Toledo: "When I reached the field in 1856, 
there was here only an apology for a village, and only three 
church members. Six years before, there were only eight 
inhabitants in the country. The entire frontier was a waste; 
comfortable dwellings were not to be found; eighty-seven 
members have been added in the eleven years, forty-eight on 
confession of faith." 

The churches organized this year were Alden, Belmond, 
Independence, Hickory Grove, Cincinnati and Ft. Atkin- 
son, German. The Alden Church came into existence because 
the Illinois Central passed that way, and because Iowa Falls 
was near at hand, and because Jesse Rogers and his family 
and relatives and the Spencers and Taylors and other salt 
of the earth were there — a salt that has never lost its savor. 

Belmond Church grew out of a union Sunday school started 
in 1866, in which Deacon Boughton and Deacon Hinman 
had a hand, and out of special meetings held by Rev. Charles 
Harrison of Otisville. Of the charter members, four were 
Baptists, four Methodists, one United Brethren, one Congre- 
gationalist, and three united on confession. Rev. E. C. 
Miles supplied the church for a short time, and then came 
Father Sands. 

June 23, Garnavillo dedicated its second house of worship, 
built at a cost of $3,600. This building is still in use. The 
last Sunday of the same month, Buckingham dedicated a 
three thousand four hundred dollar building, Doctor Magoun 



184 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

preaching the sermon. About one half the money for the 
building was donated by Governor Buckingham of Massachu- 
setts. An " Advance Premium Bell," secured by one hundred 
subscriptions to the paper of that name, swings in the tower. 
The people ascribed all honor and praise first to the Lord and 
then to his faithful servant, Rev. Bennett Roberts, for nearly a 
decade pastor of the church. In December Prairie City 
dedicated, " Doctor Cochran of Grinnell preaching one of his 
massive sermons, a perfect broadside against sin and error." 
The Osage church was this year adorned with a fine Troy bell, 
the gift of Orrin Sage of Ware, Massachusetts. That bell is 
swinging yet and ringing sweet and clear as when it first 
began to call the people to the sanctuary. 

Who of our Congregational household has not heard of 
Rev. John Morley, pastor of Winona, Minnesota, Superin- 
tendent of Home Missions in Minnesota, President of Fargo 
College, and now pastor at Springfield, Vermont? But who 
knows that, coming from Andover, he was ordained at Mag- 
nolia, January 2 of this year, and that for nearly a decade 
he was growing into strength with our growing church at Sioux 
City? Henry S. DeForest, too, coming this year from a 
tutorship in Yale, began in Iowa, first at Des Moines, and then 
at Council Bluffs and Waterloo his training for his great 
life work at Talladega. He took with him to this Southland 
work, Mary Robbins from the parsonage at Muscatine. 

Father Taylor of Algona was installed! "After preaching 
here eleven years; long enough/' he says, "for a fast man to 
run out, and after having arrived at an age when people often 
think a minister, like an old horse, should be turned out to 
grass, the church extended to me a call to settle as their pastor. 
The action is quite gratifying to me, as it was unsought on 
my part." After the services of installation, he exclaimed, 
"I am so happy; don't know why; I am afraid that I am too 
happy!" 

As late as 1867 the brethren in their resolutions recorded 



ALONG THE RAILROAD LINES, 1866-1869 185 

their "profound sorrow at the prospect that the chief insti- 
gator of the insurrection will escape the punishment due the 
eminence of his treason," and testify their " sense of outrage 
on loyalty and freedom by the indiscriminate pardon of multi- 
tudes of mischievous and unprincipled rebels." 

The Minutes of the year record the deaths of A. D. French, 
Simeon Brown, B. A. Spaulding, L. C. Rouse and W. W. 
Allen. Mr. Brown, of Old School Presbyterian parentage 
and training, super-orthodox, but accused of heresy by the 
Miami Presbytery, united with the Congregational church 
in Ohio. He came to Ottumwa in 1864. His short pastorate 
of two and a half years was a season of great prosperity in the 
church. He died February 16. 

The narrative of Mr. Spaulding's life of toil and sacrifice 
has been already recorded in considerable fullness. He died 
at Ottumwa, March 31 of this year. It had been his home for 
almost a quarter of a century. For more than twenty years 
he was pastor of the church. He was the second of the Band 
to be called to the higher service. His life was austere and 
strenuous. He was faithful in the extreme and unto death. 
His ministry was characterized by simplicity and devotion. 
He was free from Phariseeism and cant. He spoke the truth 
in love, and was patient with the unbelieving. His life was 
gentle, unassuming, and unobtrusive. In humility and self- 
abasement he underrated himself and the value of his ministra- 
tions; but as long as the valley of the Des Moines is the abode 
of men, his work will remain. 

In 1868, Congregational Iowa, in the thirtieth year of its 
organization, reported one hundred and eighty-three churches 
with a membership of eight thousand seven hundred and 
seven-six. 

Denmark church, then thirty years of age, had a membership 
of two hundred and nineteen. At the beginning of the year. 
Father Turner was still pastor, but before the year closes, 
he resigned, and moved to Oskaloosa, and was substantially 



186 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

at the end of active service. Reuben Gaylord was in Nebraska 
but he was still touching Iowa effectively upon our Western 
borders in connection with his work in Nebraska. Julius A. 
Reed was still Superintendent of southern Iowa, but his term 
of service was drawing near its close. Oliver Emerson was 
still ranging through eastern Iowa as an itinerant Evangelist, 
just as he had been doing for nearly thirty years, and just 
as he would continue to do for some years to come. 

About this time he writes: "This has been in some respects, 
the most satisfactory year of my life. Nearly every sermon 
I have preached has been at a time and place where the people 
would have had no preacher at all, but for my presence. To 
preach to the destitute, I have felt to be my vocation." And 
a little later he says: " During the quarter, I have preached 
fifty-four sermons in twelve places, and taken part in thirty- 
seven other meetings; called on one hundred and seventy 
families, and traveled over nine hundred miles." During 
the year he traveled over three thousand miles, he of the club- 
foot, and one side of him paralyzed from his birth! 

Doctor Holbrook was done with Iowa, and was pastor at 
Homer, New York. Ephraim Adams was at Decorah; 
Harvey Adams at New Hampton; Ebenezer Alden at Marsh- 
field, Massachusetts; J. J. Hill was at Grinnell, agent for the 
American Missionary Association; Daniel Lane was at Belle 
Plaine; Alden Robbins, and William Salter were stationary, 
and E. B. Turner was helping to reconstruct the South by 
planting Congregational churches in Missouri. 

As for the rest of the one hundred and thirty-nine preachers 
of the state, some of them were located as follows: A. A. 
Baker, recently arrived, was at Manchester; L. W. Brintnall 
was at Winthrop; Harmon Bross of Chicago Seminary was at 
Ottumwa, and will have a few years of service here before 
he begins his thirty years of service as pastor, general mission- 
ary, and Superintendent of Home Missions in Nebraska. 
Simeon Gilbert, later editor of the Advance, and still residing 






ALONG THE RAILROAD LINES, 1866-1869 187 

in Chicago, was at Ames, and writes: "The Agricultural 
College will undoubtedly occupy a high position among the 
educational facilities which this noble state is preparing to 
furnish its sons and daughters." Jesse Guernsey was still 
Superintendent of Home Missions; J. A. Hamilton was just 
beginning at Davenport; W.F.Harvey, pioneer farmer preacher, 
was at Webster City, and all about the region; Father Taylor 
was at Algona, of course; Father Tenney at Plymouth, as he 
had been for nearly a quarter of a century; M. Tingley was in 
the eighth year of his pastorate at Sioux City; John Todd in 
his sixteenth year at Tabor; J. R. Upton at Monona, but 
getting ready to start for Dickenson County; J. S. Antwerp 
in his eleventh year at De Witt; Lyman Whiting at Dubuque; 
Father Windsor at Keosauqua; and Chauncy D. Wright at 
Exira. 

James D. Mason was at Mason City. He began there in 
1864. One of his monuments is the old stone church, many 
of the stones of which were of his quairying and much of the 
mortar of his mixing. The house was large enough at the 
time it was built to hold the whole population of Cerro Gordo 
County. This building still stands, a part of the splendid 
new structure that now is. While here Brother Mason did 
preliminary work at Clear Lake. After six years at Mason 
City he labored for a time at Rock Falls where another stone 
church is a memorial of him. Then he was pastor at Nora 
Springs. In 1876 he began his first pastorate at Forest City, 
lasting eight years, in which he erected another monument, 
another sanctuary, the first for English speaking people in 
Winnebago County. In connection with this pastorate 
he did pioneer work at Lake Mills, Garner, Crystal Lake and 
Ellington, often preaching three times on Sunday and riding 
thirty miles between services. Later, after four years of 
service at Clear Lake and four at Central City, he returned to 
Forest City for a second pastorate which consumed five more 
years of his life. Then came a year of service at Lakeside, 



188 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

two at Wesley, two again at Nora Springs, and then a third 
call to Forest City. Then he thought it time to retire, but, 
gathering a little strength he supplied a little time in Minne- 
sota, then retired again for old age. But for a fourth time 
Forest City laid claim to his services. But it was only for a 
brief period, then came the end, February 1, 1910. His 
education was limited but, by various gifts, natural and super- 
natural, he was well qualified for his high calling. He was a 
good preacher, a pastor preeminent, and a "man of prayer." 
He gave Iowa forty-six years of heroic service, more than forty 
of these years within the Mitchell Association. Humble, 
unknown by many even of his brethren in the state, his life 
was a great force for the building of the kingdom and the 
making of the commonwealth. One of the men of Iowa to be 
remembered with affection and gratitude is this good man, 
James D. Mason. 

This year there came a young man, fresh from Chicago 
Seminary, en route for a little country village called Osage 
up in Mitchell County. By water and rail and stage coach, 
via McGregor and Adams, Minnesota, he reached his destina- 
tion, May 15, and preached his first sermon, the following 
Sunday, May 17. At the first prayer meeting, he exclaimed 
to himself: "Oh, how dreadful is this place!" He prayed 
earnestly that he might be delivered from a call. The call 
came, however, though faint and feeble, but the young man 
did not dare refuse, lest this might be the "still small voice" 
of the Spirit. Fourteen years he served the church, leaving 
a membership of two hundred and forty-six. For twenty- 
five years he was Secretary of the Iowa Congregational Home 
Missionary Society. If you don't know the name of this 
young man, ask your more enlightened neighbor. He some- 
times writes his history thus : " Born in Illinois, raised in Wis- 
consin, lived in Iowa." 

Among the new men of this year is Hermann Ficke. The 
church organized among the Germans of Dubuque in 1847 had 



ALONG THE RAILROAD LINES, 1866-1869 189 

been switched over to the Presbyterians by a minister who did 
not consider the Congregational people sound enough in doc- 
trine for the German people to associate with. Mr. Ficke 
finds here nothing but plenty of raw material. He must 
build from the ground up. He began to build in 1868, and he 
is at it yet, the only man of our fellowship in active service 
where he began forty years ago. How well he has builded, his 
monuments will testify : Church building and parsonage valued 
at $20,000; a membership of two hundred, and a Sunday school 
of four hundred ; probably the most important German Congre- 
gational plant in America. And, better than this, his neighbors 
say: "No man that ever lived in Dubuque has done so much 
for the young men of the city as Hermann Ficke. Find here 
a prosperous and trusty young man and you are pretty sure to 
find Hermann Ficke somewhere in the process of his mak- 
ing." All honor to this prince of our German helpers, Her- 
mann Ficke!* 

The new churches of the year were Eldora, Kellogg, Grand 
River, Immanuel of Dubuque, Jasper City, Manson, Marshall- 
town, Wentworth now Mclntire and a German church at 
Quasqueton. 

The dedications of the year are as follows: Charles City, 
January 28, Doctor Whiting of Dubuque preaching the sermon; 
the cost of the building, $7,000. It was a red letter day for 
Brother Brodwell and his people. This same building, three 
times remodeled, was demolished a few months ago to make 
room for the splendid new edifice that is about to be. Coupled 
with the dedication, was a grateful farewell to the Home 
Missionary Society, which had been a foster mother to the 
church all the days of its life, until now. 

Wittemberg also dedicated a three thousand five hundred dol- 
lar building, had accessions of over fifty to membership, and 
came to self-support. Cresco rededicated the old building 
brought over from New Oregon and made new. Franklin 

*Mr. Ficke died June 4th, 1911. 



190 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

dedicated. Independence completed the six thousand dollar 
building now in use. Father Taylor and his Algona people 
after twelve years of waiting, now have a comfortable sanc- 
tuary with a real pulpit and a bell! But this was not a new 
building; that would be too much of a luxury. It was the old 
hall built by a stock company in 1856 and used for all sorts 
of public gatherings, dances, debates, lectures, sociables, 
religious services and everything. It had already become 
historic. In the spring of 1857 this building formed a part of 
the stockade to protect the citizens from the expected attacks 
of the Indians. Here on the day of Lincoln's second inaugu- 
ration a flag was presented by the State in recognition of the fact 
that Kossuth County had done more for the sick and wounded 
soldiers of the army than any other county. Here the first 
county fair was held, and here, in 1862 a company was enlisted 
to repel the attack of the Indians after the New Ulm massacre. 
Here in 1864, the first county teachers' institute was held, 
Father Taylor conducting it. Here Father Taylor began 
holding services in May of 1857, and here he preached for 
seventeen years. Here the village school was held for several 
years. In this building in 1867 under Father Taylor's direc- 
tion, beginnings of the Northwestern University were made, 
and here the Library Association was started. In 1867 the stock 
was purchased by members of the Congregational church, 
and now, moved to a new site and remodeled. In September 
of 1868 the building was dedicated, and the church, after so 
long a time, had "a local habitation and a name." 

This is the twenty-fifth year of the Band, and " silver wed- 
ings" are the order of the day. They all indulge in retrospect. 
Daniel «Lane testifies: "We have never regretted our choice 
of a field. We have rejoiced in it from the beginning." He 
thus states what to him was marvelous: "The traveler who 
passes through Iowa on the great railway (the Northwestern) is 
scarcely out of sight of a white man's home the whole distance 
from the Mississippi to the Missouri. The whistle of the 



ALONG THE RAILROAD LINES, 1866-1869 191 

engine is almost constantly notifying him of some city or 
village or hamlet or station of one or two houses just erected, 
which, in one year's time, will be the center of a new town of 
four or five hundred inhabitants. Passing over this road last 
June, I could scarce believe what my own eyes saw — so rapid 
had been the improvement and settlement of the country." 

At the beginning of 1869, only Reed and Emerson of the 
patriarchs remained in active service in Iowa; and now Mr. 
Reed dropped out, leaving the half dead man with the foot 
of Byron and the heart of the apostle Paul the most alive of 
any of them, alone in the field. Of course Mr. Reed indulges 
in retrospect, and writes: "When I entered upon this agency 
in 1845, we had in Iowa twenty-five churches with six hundred 
members, and twenty-three ministers, and nine churches had 
houses of worship. Last year we had one hundred and eighty- 
three churches, with eight thousand, seven hundred and 
seventy-five members and one hundred and thirty-nine minis- 
ters. In 1845, the western limits of the white settlement 
was a north and south line passing through Red Rock in 
Marion County, some distance east of the center of the state. 
West of this line, Indians were the only inhabitants, and elk 
and buffalo roamed at their pleasure, while east of that line, 
whole counties were substantially wild and unknown. Ottum- 
wa, Oskaloosa, and Newton were mere clusters of log cabins; 
no town in the territory could boast of four thousand inhabi- 
tants, and Davenport had less than one thousand. The 
population of the territory was less than one hundred thousand. 
In thirty-six years, our population has increased from nothing 
to one million, and will probably, at the close of this century 
amount to three millions." 

This prophecy overshot the mark only fifty thousand but 
no prophet, however much inspired, could have foreseen 
the land craze of our people, making Iowa too small for them, 
and thinning out the population. 

Probably no man for the first quarter of a century of our his- 



192 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

tory had more to do with the developments of Congregational- 
ism in Iowa than did Julius A. Reed. Retiring now from 
active service, he spent a few years in business in Nebraska, but 
returned to Iowa to spend his declining years with his daughter, 
Mrs. S. F. Smith, at Davenport, and to be to the end a positive 
force in the upbuilding of the churches, the academy and 
college which he helped to found, and which he loved with 
all his heart. He left a bequest of ten thousand dollars to 
Denmark Academy. "The workmen die, but the work goes 
on." 

His place was filled by Joseph Pickett of Mount Pleasant. 
He brought to the work unbounded enthusiasm and the spirit 
of devotion and self-sacrifice. His place was mostly in the 
field and not in the office. For nine years he served and then 
passed on to the Rocky Mountain district, soon coming to a 
tragic death by the overturning of a stagecoach. You may 
read the story of his life in a little book written by Dr. William 
Salter. 

We have had an introduction to Edwin S. Hill of Grove 
City. The following communication from him will show 
how the railroads dictate and dominate, and how their select 
stations grow: 

My commission last year, was for Grove City, but Atlantic, on the 
Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific, three miles from Grove City, having 
drawn a principal part of the people, and all the business, it seemed best 
to make Atlantic the center of labor. 

A church of eight members was organized in April; it now numbers 
fifteen. We have in course of erection a house of worship 32 x 46. We 
have a population of about twelve hundred. Nine months ago the prairie 
where Atlantic now stands was unbroken. The first house was built in 
September. Now there are over two hundred houses. For the last five 
months, the growth of the place has averaged more than a house per day, 
and the work is going on now faster than ever before. 

Here perhaps as appropriately as anywhere, may come in 
the story of Father Sands, for 1869 was the beginning of his 
great bishopric in Wright and Hancock counties. What had 



ALONG THE RAILROAD LINES, 1866-1869 193 

gone before was in preparation for this great work. He was 
born at Norfolk, England, February 8, 1815, just four months 
before the battle of Waterloo. In 1835, as a soldier of her 
Britannic Majesty, he was in Canada helping to quell the 
"Papineau rebellion." Four years later, purchasing his 
release from the army, he took a three years' course in 
a Canadian academy, and graduated from Yale Divinity School 
in 1849, and for nine years was pastor at Essex, Vermont. 

"From 1848 to 1855/' he says, "I attended the meetings 
of the American Board. At these meetings I met Julius A. 
Reed who talked little else but Iowa, Iowa. I was just the 
man for Iowa." The Iowa Agent got his man. He reached 
Davenport early in June, being entertained there by Doctor 
Magoun, and later in the month he began a ten years' pastorate 
at Keosauqua. Two years and more of this time, however, 
he was at the front, chaplain of the Nineteeth Iowa Regiment. 

After short terms of service at Quincy of this state and 
Wataga, Illinois, he found his proper place and work as 
"■bishop of Wright and Hancock counties." His welcome, 
January 27, 1869, was a "howling blizzard." Belmond was 
a village of ten dwellings, a store, blacksmith shop, a grist 
and a saw mill. The people promised nothing. "Sorry, 
but we can't raise you any money." "But I have come to 
stay," was his reply, and stay he did for more than forty years. 

And this for years was his program: Sunday morning 
at Belmond; Sunday afternoon, say, where Clarion now 
stands; Sunday evening down at Eagle Grove, called Eagle 
Grove because there is neither grove nor eagle there ; Monday 
night at the French settlement near Woolstock, where he 
preached to a company of French people in their own language; 
Tuesday night he had an appointment; Wednesday night, 
Thursday night, Friday night, often-times a meeting on Sat- 
urday. The next week was the same program, only another 
set of places, eighteen or twenty visited regularly, and he was 
accustomed to say: "I don't think a minister can be real 

14 



194 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

healthy unless he preaches at least once every day and three 
or four times on Sunday." So he kept it up, year in and year 
out, until too old for this sort of service, and so crippled with 
rheumatism that he could no longer manage the ponies. 
Once accosted with the inquiry, "Well, Father Sands, where 
are you located now?" his reply was: "Sir, I'm not a tramp, 
I'm where I was." Eighty-eight years of age still found him 
at his post. For years he could not stand to preach, but he 
would hobble up into his pulpit with crutch and cane, and 
sit before his people, a veritable apostle John; and they say 
his last days of preaching were his best. It was hard for him 
to retire even in old age. It took some little persuasion and 
pressure from the outside to bring him to the point. The 
church made him pastor emeritus. The Home Missionary 
Society gladly gave him a pension of two hundred dollars. 
He died at the age of ninety-four, Sunday, March 7, 1909. 
It is said that forty-two churches of various denominational 
names have sprung up in that man's footsteps. His salary 
never exceeded four hundred dollars. "There was a man sent 
from God whose name was John" — John D. Sands, a typical 
home missionary. 

The new churches of 1869 were Golden Prairie, Ogden, 
Alt antic and Parkersburg. 

Green Mountain dedicated a house of worship and Bucking- 
ham came to self-support. 

Illustrations of what the railroads were doing for the state 
in these busy years are abundant. Here is one. Rev. S. B. 
Goodenow of Jefferson writes: "We here see towns and cities 
growing up as if by magic. If a nation is not literally born in 
a day, a city often seems almost to be built in a night. It has 
been so at Grand Junction. Last summer I heard the rumor 
of the coming railroad (the Des Moines Valley Road) which 
was to cross our great Northwestern only seven miles from the 
county seat. With interest I noted the prophecies of a great 
town to spring up there. In August last I went upon the 



ALONG THE RAILROAD LINES, 1866-1869 195 

designated ground, out upon the wide, uninhabited prairie, to 
see if I could find any stakes driven, where a railroad or settle- 
ment was to be. Amid the tall grass of the swales and glades 
I sauntered out of sight of land, that is, with no sign of human 
existence, no building, no fence, no shrub, no pathway to be 
seen in any direction — save one broad, rolling sea of untamed 
verdure. I found at last the little pine sticks driven down 
in a long vanishing line, which told where the commerce of 
distant regions was soon to roll along its iron way; where in a 
few weeks, the bustle of business should hum through numer- 
ous streets. I could not see it then, but I see it now. Three 
months later I found a thriving town, streets all laid out, 
many stores occupied and driving a flourishing business, 
two fine hotels built and guests in plenty, a great number 
of dwelling-houses full of people, a great round-house of brick 
finished and occupied, a bank in process of erection, and num- 
erous other signs of progress. The old settlers were already 
beginning to put on an air before the new-comers; and I, who 
three months before had roved those untrodden slopes, seemed 
to the citizens as one of the aborigines of the realm left over 
from primeval times." 

We have the following from the report of Superintendent 
Guernsey: 

I have this quarter travelled not less than three thousand miles; visited 
twenty-eight mission fields; attended four associational meetings and 
two councils; assisted in the dedication of one church; preached twelve 
times and made many other addresses. I had not seen the Northwest 
portion of our state since 1860. Then it took me two weeks to reach it. 
Now I went in twenty-four hours. Two new railroads will cross the new 
counties of that region before the close of 1870. In anticipation of them 
people are pouring in. All along and near their surveyed lines towns and 
cities are being staked off on the prairies and very soon will cease to be 
"paper cities" merely. A field promising a richer harvest it would be 
difficult to find than that which the next few months are to open in North- 
western Iowa. 

This year records the death of Aratus Kent. He was the 
first of the Prospectors. He was born in Suffield, Connecticut, 



196 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

January 15, 1794; graduated from Yale in 1816, and studied 
theology at Union and Princeton. He began his missionary 
work at Galena in April, 1829. He visited Fort Dearborn in 
1833. There were no roads or bridges and only one settle- 
ment between the two villages. He became Home Missionary 
Superintendent of Northern Illinois in 1848. Some years 
before he retired he had the record of having preached two 
thousand one hundred and sixty-nine sermons in four hundred 
and seventy-seven different places. He died November 
8, 1869. He was a Presbyterian all his days, but he was 
supported largely by Congregational money, and he is a part 
of our Congregational heritage and history. 



Chapter X 
UP IN THE SIOUX COUNTRY, 1870-1879 

When, in 1833, our Pilgrims began to arrive, this North- 
western Iowa was the land of the " Bloody Sioux." Memo- 
rials of them still remain in such names as, the Little Sioux, 
the Big Sioux, River Sioux, Sioux County, Sioux City, Sioux 
Rapids, Okoboji, Spirit Lake, and in the monument marking 
the Spirit Lake massacre in 1857. The number of the victims 
of that awful tragedy was forty-two. 

As we have seen, in 1859 Father Taylor, supposed to have 
been the most sanely far-sighted man of the region, at an 
Associational gathering at Webster City, said, " There never 
will be anything to the northwest of us here but Indians and 
grasshoppers"; and he, and his associates placed the North- 
western Association down in the heart of the state. There 
was good reason for this view of the future for, at that time, 
as to civilized life, Northwestern Iowa was an unbroken 
solitude; and in the regions still west, there was no Dakota, 
not much Nebraska, and but little Kansas. The first rail- 
road was struggling westward from Iowa City; the old stage 
coach was king; streams, in large portions of the state, were 
bridgeless, and the roads of the sort not made by hands. 

Now, in the 70s, to which time we have come, Father 
Taylor was found to be a false prophet, for Father Upton was 
up there in Dickinson County, on the northern borders, and 
only fifty miles east of the Big Sioux; and in the decade churches 
were planted at Cherokee, Lakeville, Humboldt, Le Mars, 
Grant, Newell, Spencer, Sheldon, Spirit Lake, Emmetsburg, 
Clarion, Sibley, Sioux Rapids, Greenwood Center, Rock Rapids, 
etc.; and it became evident that the whole of Iowa even 

197 



198 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

its treeless prairies, of which there were whole counties was 
to be inhabited by white people. 

In the early 70s Father Taylor made this confession: 
"I have assisted in the organization of a church at Emmets- 
burg, about thirty miles west in Palo Alto County. There I 
met Brother Coleman and delegate from the church in Spencer 
about thirty miles still farther west, so that the churches from 
east and west united and filled up the gap. Thus the brethren 
have surrounded me and kept encroaching upon my parish 
until I have only one county left, unless I go east into Hancock 
County, which I believe is disputed ground between myself 
and brethren Allen of Clear Lake and Sands of Belmond." 
However, he takes pleasure in the newness of communities 
northwest of him. "The country there," he says, "is very 
new, many of the families still living in their sod houses, and 
it seemed like old times to see them gathering from every direc- 
tion to their sod schoolhouse, some with teams and some on 
foot, picking their way around or through the sloughs. They 
filled the house so that I could neither spread myself nor 
stretch myself, as I could not stand up straight without hit- 
ting the brush and grass of the roof." 

In our travels about the state, we have already met Father 
Upton in Durango, and Buckingham and Monona, but the 
history of Congregational Iowa locates him in Dickinson 
County, and gives him the first place among the pioneer 
missionaries of our real Northwest. Brother Ephraim Adams 
gave this description of his first trip from Monona to the new 
field: 

The journey was not by rail, but by a true missionary rig of his own getting 
up for the occasion. A very long horse hitched by quite long tugs to an 
exceedingly long buckboard, with himself and trunk located at the rear. 
The intention doubtless was that the horse might be safely on terra firma, 
his forelegs at least, just about the time that the weight of the concern 
would be getting into the worst of the slough. The impression of the 
beholder naturally was that he would probably get through to his jour- 
ney's end in safety, if he only had a spyglass to steer by. At any rate, 



UP IN THE SIOUX COUNTRY, 1870-1879 199 

he did get through to Lakeville, and found plenty of room to turn in in 
the surrounding counties where at that time fences were unknown, farms 
few and inhabitants rare. In his tours, he found the people hungry for 
preaching. Traveling about he grew rugged and cheerful. His hair, 
he affirmed, was less gray than when he started. When he came back 
for his family he was happy as a foreign missionary. His accounts of 
the far-off country just discovered were glowing. He ever remained a 
firm believer in northwestern Iowa, despite blizzards and grasshoppers. 

In every misfortune and calamity he would comfort himself 
and his neighbors by the assurance: " There's a future for 
Dickinson County." He began his work August 25, 1869. 
His description of the field as it was a few months later is 
as follows: 

About a year ago, your Superintendent stated that there were fifteen 
counties in the northwest corner of this state in which we had no church or 
minister. This determined me to seek a field of labor in them. Accord- 
ingly I commenced a work of exploring nine of these counties, and found 
almost everywhere new settlements forming, most of them scarcely three 
months old. Nearly all were upon homesteads, given on condition of five 
years' residence and improvements. 

The climate and soil are excellent. Scarcity of timber and fear of 
Indians in years past delayed settlement. These obstacles are now not 
serious. The red man is far removed, so that he cannot repeat his out- 
rages. Several thousand acres of timber, rich peat beds, and, not far off, 
the best coal regions of the state; with a railroad nearly completed, three 
others on their way, and another to pass near, all this, added to cheapness 
of land, is causing the country to be settled with almost unprecedented 
rapidity. 

My labors have been mostly confined to three ranges of counties lying 
in the valley of the Little Sioux River, one of the finest in Iowa. In 
Cherokee, Clay and Dickinson counties, I find at four important points 
materials sufficient for organizing a church, and have evidence that at 
other points missionary labor will be needed soon, and churches should 
be organized. 

Some part of my entertainment is furnished me by settlers, but I have 
to provide many things, or fare hard. Often I have to go many miles for 
a place to lay my head at night. Many families cannot keep me or my 
horse at all. Some are living in sod houses, in shanties covered with hay, 
and others in caverns dug into the sides of hills roofed over with turf. 
Log cabins are almost palatial compared with the other dwellings. 



200 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Father Upton's first church was at Cherokee, organized with 
eight members, June 12, 1870. In September of this year 
he was relieved of the care of this church by the coming of 
Rev. W. F. Rose. His second church, Lakeville, on West 
Okoboji, was organized with thirty members July 9, of this 
same year. For several years this was the missionary's head- 
quarters, and most important field. Superintendent Guernsey 
gives a glowing account of a pioneer church sociable, from 
thirty to fifty gathered at the pastor's house here at Lakeville. 
It was from this Lakeville home that Mrs. Upton wrote: 
"We never drop our curtains in the evening, and our lamp 
often guides a belated traveler to rest and safety." 

At the end of his second year, Father Upton reported: 
"Two years ago I began to explore this almost unheard-of 
region where settlements were just commencing. I have 
been permitted to see an amazing, unparalleled rapidity of 
settlement and to feel myself among the most stirring agencies 
that are changing a wilderness not less than eighty miles 
square into a fruitful field. Religiously, as well as otherwise, 
it seems as if a nation has been born in a day. Ministers 
are coming in and churches are multiplying, and the way is 
almost clear to organize an Association within the boundaries 
of the field, all of which I called mine one year ago. The 
memory of these two years of missionary service will be the 
most pleasant of my life." 

The second pioneer for the region was Rev. Benj. A. Dean. 
He arrived March 1, 1872, from Garnavillo, and took posses- 
sion of Osceola County, its population scarcely one thousand, 
county seat not yet located, only one tree, it was said, in the 
whole county. He was as short as Father Upton was tall. 
His horse and buggy were both compact. He was quick in 
his motions, getting about with amazing swiftness. With 
his bag of books, he went everywhere, establishing Sunday- 
schools, and establishing preaching stations at every available 
point. By universal consent, the verdict was that no Methpr 



UP IN THE SIOUX COUNTRY, 1870-1879 201 

dist itinerant had ever been known to get over the ground 
as he did; not that his horse Tim was so very fleet, but always 
at it. His wife, a true daughter of Holyoke, all over their 
home missionary fields, organized bands for foreign missions. 
Of himself and his field, he says : 

Starting in March, I traveled two weeks, through storms and deep 
snows, and over trackless prairies, being snow-blind for a week. I preached 
twice in Dickinson County. In April, after getting my house habitable 
I preached once at home, twice at Indian Lake, once at Round Lake, and 
I preached the first sermon ever heard in Worthington, Minnesota. I 
preached also in the Perry neighborhood, and at Sibley, ten and one-half 
miles west of my home. This is our proposed county-seat and chief rail- 
way station. During the quarter, I have traveled about six hundred 
miles. Others must fill the railroad centers. I take for my work, the 
scattered people five, ten and fifteen miles back. We shall have a hard 
lot here with these poor people, but though wearied with my work, I 
rejoice in it, and am thankful to have been sent here. 

The Sioux Association was organized in the Spring of 1872. 
The five churches uniting were Cherokee, Lakeville, Grant, 
Le Mars, and Sioux City. This last named ancient church, 
fifteen years of age, coming from the Council Bluffs Associa- 
tion, with its able and genial pastor, J. H. Morley, was a 
tower of strength to the new Association. Half of the mem- 
bership of the Association was in this church, and church and 
pastor gave heart and hand to the pioneer work of the new 
regions now opened up. Father Upton, the pioneer mission- 
ary, was, of course, one of the charter members. 

Rev. W. L. Coleman, too, coming from years of pioneer 
experiences at Bellevue, Stacyville and Mitchell, was one of 
the charter members, and a guiding hand in its affairs. He 
had much to do with the planting of the churches, especially 
those at Spencer and Emmetsburg, to both of which he min- 
istered as pastor, serving the Spencer church for seven years. 
The other charter ministerial members were Rev. W. F. 
Rose of Cherokee, and J. H. Covey of Grant. Among those 
who did pood service in the Sioux country and the borders 



202 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

thereof was William J. Smith. We find him first at Osage 
in 1858. In the early 70s he was at Alden, then at Newell 
and Manson, "the only Congregational minister in four 
counties," and then, at the very beginning of things, at Sioux 
Rapids in the very heart of the Sioux country. In the Spring 
of 1870, he had it in his mind and heart to go to the Associa- 
tional meeting at Otho. How he missed the mark the follow- 
ing from him will show: 

We all love the meeting of Association, both for its profit and pleasure. 
But the country between Alden and Otho is very flat, with numerous 
ponds of standing water, and this is a preeminently wet season and there 
are two large rivers to be forded. Two delegates with their wives in a 
small wagon are gone; minister and wife with horse and buggy follow a 
few hours later. [Brother Smith was always "a few hours later".] First 
company about eight miles from home turns into a field to avoid an impas- 
sable slough; through mistake they get on soft ground and suddenly find 
themselves with but one horse. Seeing ears they think that the other 
horse is not far off. What they did to get on terra firma would be too long 
a story. Wading, wallowing in the mud to the Boone River, they find the 
banks full, but they ford by the aid of a large emigrant wagon train of 
mammoth horses and four men. 

They pursue their watery way to the Des Moines, over which, after 
foot-wanderings over the brushy shore, they are paddled, part at a time, 
in a canoe and finally hauled by several yokes of oxen where horses could 
not go. This party of the first part attended Association — having con- 
quered because they did not know they were whipped. As to the party 
of the second part, minister and wife followed their illustrious predeces- 
sors through all to the Boone, and looked upon its frightful, rushing tide. 
Not being swimmers, and not wishing to commit suicide nor to take pas- 
sage to the Gulf of Mexico, they turned about and, after three days of 
travel, reached home with new experience of what they call roads in the 
West. "Why not take cars?" you ask. For three reasons. The cars 
do not run there. If they did the fare is nearly six cents a mile. To give 
half-fare tickets for any ecclesiastical meeting is with our railroad folks 
unconstitutional. 

On the borders of the Sioux country was another whose story 
belongs in the records of the 70s. At an advanced age, 
Father Allen came from long years of pioneer work in Wis- 



UP IN THE SIOUX COUNTRY, 1870-1879 203 

consin in the fall of 1868. He organized the church at Clear 
Lake. He was ahead of Brother J. D. Mason at Forest City, 
Ellington and the country round about. Here is a glimpse 
of the heroism of this old "soldier of the cross" : 

The Superintendent advised me to go to Forest City once a month dur- 
ing the winter. I have done so thus far, and shall continue to do so when 
roads and weather permit; but you must know that quite often dreadful 
storms of snow and cold render it unsafe to travel. It is twenty miles 
from here. Twice in crossing these bleak prairies I came near perishing. 
For many miles there is not a house on the road. Once, after riding many 
miles facing a northwest wind, my horse refused to go. I left him in the 
road and succeeded in crawling to the door of a house, and the woman of 
the house helped me in, almost frozen to death. I could not walk. At 
another time, leaving my horse at a tavern, I walked nearly a mile to the 
schoolhouse to preach. No one had dared to come out and the door was 
locked. I attempted to go back to the nearest house facing a storm of 
wind and snow and I had to crawl on my hands and knees. I barely 
escaped perishing. In either of these cases I could not have gone fifty 
rods farther. I am growing old — will be seventy-eight in June. 

Ephraim Adams gives us a picture of this grand old man 
as he appeared shortly before his death: 

At our Ministers' Retreat at Clear Lake, we held, July 27, a kind of 
Ministers' Institute, at which Father Allen, by request, was to say to us a 
few words. He put them into writing and I hold in my hand the paper 
which, at my request, he gave me that day. As I look it over, I can see 
the trembling hand, the hoary locks, the erect yet yielding frame. I am 
looking again into that kind, benevolent face; and almost hear the voice, 
the tones, the inflections with which these words were spoken. It seems 
now almost a voice from the grave, aye, rather from within the veil. 

Conspicuous among those who in later years did notable 
service in the Sioux country, as elsewhere in Iowa, was Rev. 
A. M. Beaman. He was accepted by the Sioux Association 
as a licentiate in September 1888. He began at Sergeant's 
Bluffs. He did missionary work at Spencer, Spirit Lake, 
Milford, and Sioux Rapids. He organized the churches at 
Peterson and Castana. He built parsonages at Sergeant's 
Bluffs, and Corning, and had much to do with the erection 



204 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

of church buildings at Castana, Peterson and Sioux Rapids. 
His preliminary building at Sioux Rapids cost five hundred 
dollars. The house had no underpinning; its weather board- 
ing was ship-lap; there was no paint either within or without; 
the only spire was a stove-pipe sticking up through the roof; 
and yet there was a lady in the church who said: "I came 
from the vicinity of Boston, and worshipped in a forty thou- 
sand dollar church, and yet I must say that out here in this 
rude chapel, we have better preaching than we had at home." 
Speaking of his work up in the Sioux country, Mr. Beaman 
says: 

Those years of Home Missionary work are among the best and happiest 
of my life. Coming into the ministry as I did, without fitness, but called 
of God, I feared the "cold shoulder" from the school men, but I never 
have had it given me. The stronger men of the state were always my 
helpers. 

In the competition for pulpits, I have had no part, and yet for nearly 
twenty-five years I was not without a pulpit for even one day. God has 
always opened the door, and I have never pushed. I have been happy in 
all of my work. 

So many seem to fear the Home Mission work, and salary connected 
with it. Why, I took the last ten dollar bill I had to pay my fare to my 
first field — paid $7.50 for ticket and waited on God, and for the church. 
I have always paid my debts promptly, given liberally to benevolence, 
saved as I could honestly, invested not very wisely always, and have a 
comfortable reliance today for the needs of life. God has blessed me, 
blessed my work, and he will do this for any one who "follows where He 
leads." 

This is valuable testimony. Really what better lot in life 
is there than this? 

Early in the decade occurred an event of great significance 
to the whole state, and to Northern Iowa and the Sioux 
country in particular — a change of Superintendents. "The 
noble Guernsey," as his successor called him was stricken 
in the midst of his great service, December 1, 1870. Doctor 
Magoun speaks of him as "a man of large make, both of body 
and mind; a man of great practical energy and wisdom, apt 



UP IN THE SIOUX COUNTRY, 1870-1879 205 

in affairs and fertile in expedients." He was born at Water- 
town, Connecticut, July 1822. He paid in part for private 
instruction in the classics by working at twenty-five cents 
a day. The years 1842-1844 he spent at Western Reserve Col- 
lege one year having " only eight dollars in money, most of which 
went for postage at twenty-five cents a letter.' ' After short 
pastorates in Charlestown, Massachusetts, 1847-1849, Derby 
City, 1849-1852, and a few months at Saybrook, he was called 
to Dubuque, and began there a pastorate of two years, Decem- 
ber 2, 1853. Returning East, he was at Woodbridge, Connec- 
ticut for a year, and then returned to Iowa for the great work 
of his life as Superintendent of Home Missions, beginning in 
September of 1857, and closing with his death December 1, 
1870. That this was a faithful and fruitful ministry these 
pages abundantly testify. As he was starting out on one 
occasion for some home missionary service, his wife " tried 
to detain him on the ground that he was unable to go; his 
reply was that if it were a large place he wouldn't think of 
going, but as it was a little church, and his coming would mean 
so much to them, he couldn't bear to disappoint them." 
This was characteristic of the man. He did a great work. 
In the fourteen years of his leadership the churches grew in 
numbers from one hundred and four to two hundred and seven, 
and the membership from three thousand, four hundred and 
ninety-two to eleven thousand and twenty-seven. 

Now who was to take Mr. Guernsey's place? Turner of the 
Band was doing splendid work down in Missouri as Superin- 
tendent of Home Missions. Was there another member of the 
Band with special qualifications for such a place of honor 
and hardship? How would that gentle, refined, retiring, 
delicate but forceful man up at Decorah do for the rugged 
service? He was one of the Band, the best of them, if there 
was any best. He had been here nearly thirty years, a close 
observer, always at the Association, state and local. He knew 
the state as well as any pastor can; and he loved Iowa and the 



206 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

churches and the college and all our institutions, with all 
his heart; and he was known and trusted and loved by all the 
people. Moreover he had a genuis for organization, and though 
without self-assertion, easily assuming the role of leadership. 
How would he do? 

His ten years of splendid efficient service, beginning in 1872 
give answer: "He will do!" It would be almost literally 
correct to say: "He organized home missions in Iowa." 
The present perfect constitution of the Iowa Home Missionary 
Society is simply a statement in terms of constitution and 
by-laws of home missionary operations set in motion by his 
hand. For six years his diocese was Northern Iowa, and then 
for four years longer he had the whole state. In the ten years 
the churches increased from two hundred and seven to two 
hundred and fifty- seven, and the membership from eleven 
thousand and twenty-seven to fifteen thousand, five hundred 
and eighty-seven. 

Brother Adams' first report was a sad one, recording the 
death of his oldest son, Theodore, at the age of twenty-six. 
The report is characteristic of the man and ends as follows: 
"So this morning, I take up my life-work again. It seems to 
me my last life-work. May it be prosecuted for the time God 
gives, with a new devotion under the stimulus of this sad 
providence." The next report was also a revelation of the 
man, as also the revelation of another man and his household 
and the home missionary service. Rev. T. K. Bixby, coming 
from the schoolroom into the ministry, was permitted to preach 
just one year, at Rockford — "the happiest year of my life," 
he said — and then entered upon still happier service, the date 
of his translation, March 13, 1873. 

With his wife he left six children, the eldest a lad of fifteen, and five 
daughters, a lovely row tapering down to the little one of three summers. 
These little ones had joint ownership in a "missionary chicken." Into a 
little pasteboard safe the growing gains were dropped as eggs were sold or 
chickens marketed. Once this box had been opened and its contents 



UP IN THE SIOUX COUNTRY, 1870-1879 207 

given to the foreign cause. The next gathering was to be for Home Mis- 
sions when the Superintendent should pass that way and open the little 
safe with them as he had promised. The opening was at a hurried morn- 
ing call. The missionary breakfast was just over; a few words of sympathy 
and cheer had been ventured and a prayer offered, the Superintendent 
taking (not filling) the father's place at the family altar. "Now children," 
said the mother, "you may bring your box." "You know," she said to 
the visitor, "that you promised them that you would open it with them 
some time." With quick feet and bright eyes they brought the box. 
Tiny fingers traced the lines where it should be opened and little heads 
crowded in to see the pennies that should rattle out. Eighty-two cents 
were soon counted; ten more were added by permission. They said I 
might acknowledge it as "from the little Bixbys." Should I take it or 
give it back? There seemed something sacred about the offering. Was 
the father looking on? If so, methought he would say, "Take it; let them 
be pleased; let them learn to love the cause for which I have toiled." The 
mother's cheerful, trusting look also said, "Take it." The litt'e ones 
expected it. So I took it, thin king, God will surely bless these little on s; 
He will care for this mother; perhaps, through this, he will stir up many 
parents to teach their little ones how to give, so that all over this land 
other children may be helpers in our great, good work. May it prove true. 

Another report tells of a thank-offering dollar with a history 
of self-denial and sacrifice. What a revelation of the self- 
denial and sacrifice of the Superintendent this comment: 
"It has already saved itself, and doubtless will save itself 
many times more, for as I take my lunch for a meal, or forego 
the rest of a sleeping car in a night ride, I think I am saving 
that dollar." 

To this decade and in this Sioux country especially belongs 
the story of the Grasshopper Invasion. In 1874 an eye-wit- 
ness wrote : 

An army of them is passing over my house going eastward. The air 
is filled with them as high as you can see. The lower strata look like 
snow-flakes in the air. Higher up they look like dust sprinkled in the 
sky. As soon as they strike they begin to eat. They have excellent 
appetites and a wide range of diet. Pungent articles are their favorites, 
but, when these fail, they thrive well on corn or grass, or leaves of fruit 
or forest trees, and even as a last resort, they devour the twigs and bark 
of the trees and the stalks of corn as the hardtack of the campaign. The 



208 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

rapidity of their work is almost incredible. The great corn-fields of the 
prairies seem to melt before them almost while you are looking at them; 
orchards and forests exhibit the baldness of winter, and the whole country 
looks as though a fire had passed over it. I drove several miles through 
the fields while the grasshoppers were working. The sound of their eat- 
ing was as if a drove of cattle were in the field. The insect differs from the 
common grasshopper. It is no doubt identical with the locust of Scrip- 
ture. The second chapter of Joel might literally be applied to the western 
plains today. They come like a strong people in battle array, with a 
noise of chariots upon the mountain of fire that devoureth the stubble. 
They march every one his own way and do not break their ranks. The land 
as the garden of Eden before them, behind them a desolate wilderness. 

Another testifies: "Last Saturday the thermometer stood 
at nearly fever heat. While longing for a shower to cool the 
air, we saw in the west what first seemed to be black clouds 
of smoke, as though the prairies were on fire. Soon we heard 
a sound as of the rushing of many waters, and then, drop! 
drop! drop! against the window-panes and upon the house, 
and lo, a shower of grasshoppers. The air was full of them. 
When they came between us and the sun there was an appear- 
ance of a partial eclipse. Their stay was long enough to 
convert our beautiful corn fields into rows of ragged bean 
poles, strip our fruit trees and almost totally destroy the 
vegetables and shrubbery of our gardens." This is copied 
from the Home Missionary of October 1874. 

They came first in 1867. They made a second visitation 
in 1873. They did their worst in 1874. They came in wan- 
dering bands in 1875, 1876 and 1877. They spread their 
devastations over the whole Sioux country as far east as 
Kossuth and Wright Counties. They brought consternation 
and ruin to thousands of the homesteaders; they decimated 
scores of communities; they broke up churches. We have 
seen the bright prospect at Lakeville. The church did not 
not long survive the grasshopper raid. One man exchanged 
his house and farm within half a mile of the church, for a team 
to get away with. The church long ago disappeared from our 



UP IN THE SIOUX COUNTRY, 1870-1879 209 

minutes and Lakeville village is not now on the map of 
Iowa. 

It was somewhat better with the church at Grant. The 
grasshoppers broke up the church, and drove out all the mem- 
bers excepting " Mother Slack." She simply would not go. 
At length the pest subsided, and people returned to the neigh- 
borhood, and thought it well to organize another church, 
and called a council for the purpose. Mother Slack objected 
to the new organization for, said she, "There is a church here 
now." "Well, where is the church?" "I am it," she replied. 
"Well, would it not be better for the church to disband, and 
form anew?" "I'll never disband," she said, and so she stood 
up and took in a dozen members into the old church, and 
preserved its "historic continuity," and the earlier date is 
recognized in our minutes. 

Another pleasing incident of the grasshopper period is thus 
told by Superintendent Adams. It occurred in the fall of 
1874. 

The Association met in Algona, where, you know, Father Taylor lives 
and where he has renewed his youth in missionary service to the regions 
round about. I went with him to one of his appointments seven miles 
from town. In a little 12 x 12 school house, on a broad prairie, its wheat 
fields destroyed and its cornfields greatly injured by the "hoppers" a 
few men, some women and more children, about forty in all, had assembled 
for Sunday school and preaching. Strains of the old hymn, "Shining 
Shore" greeted us as we drew near. First came the sermon; then the 
collection. For this they were ready, for Father Taylor had told them of 
the Society, and had promised to double whatever they would give. He 
had told me that he did not expect more than a dollar or so, but he thought 
it did people good to go through the motions if nothing more. Well, as 
soon as he motioned with his hat that he was ready, up came the little 
hands all about him with pennies, and young men's fingers with scrip, and 
even one or two old pocketbooks were turned up with dollar bills inclosed. 
Little eyes shone, and so did those of the old missionary. On counting 
up we had $5.29. "Well, Father Taylor, are you going to double it?" 
"Why, I said I would, and I will; but I guess I shall have to be careful 
how I make such promises to many more congregations." 
15 



210 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

A member of the Sheldon Church tells his experience: 

I remember that we had a nice lot of hogs, and how proud we were of 
them, for the reason that we would be enabled to supply some of our 
necessities, and at the same time do so much for the cherished enterprise 
which was so dear to us (the building of the new church). But a disap- 
pointment lurked in our path; and just as we thought we were nearing the 
fruition of our hopes, the pest came, and our dream, lovely as it was, 
vanished as the fog before the noonday sun. We had our hogs but they 
were not marketable, and we had nothing in the way of feed to make them 
so. They were turned out on the bleak prairie, to shift for themselves; 
and when all but one had succumbed to the pitiless ordeal, we took baskets 
in our hands and went into the fields and found a few nubbins, with which 
we kept his hogship alive until we got milk from our cows in the spring; 
then we made pork rapidly considering the means at hand. When the 
proper time arrived we sold our orphaned and companionless pig, and 
turned over the entire proceeds toward paying the lumber bill for the 
church. 

To Father Sands, sorely disappointed that he was prevented 
by the grasshopper scourge from building a meeting-house 
and that he could not get his usual " quarterage for home 
missions," came the calamity of the total destruction of his 
house and valuable library, and nearly all his furniture, by 
fire. It hardly need be said, however, that out of this disaster 
came friends and sympathy, books and money, and, in the 
end, a house less humble than the one consumed. 

The Nutshell Account of the church organizations of the 
decade now under review may be found in Chapter XVI. 
These churches indicate the movements of the population 
to the West, and especially to the Northwest. Of the sixty- 
one organizations of this decade, not one was in the Denmark 
or Davenport Associations, only one in the Dubuque, and two 
in the Garnavillo, and only nineteen in the eastern half of the 
state; while there were eleven in the Council Bluffs, and fif- 
teen in the new Sioux, twenty-one in the northwestern quarter, 
and forty in the western half of the state. 

Every church of the decade has a history full of interest 



UP IN THE SIOUX COUNTRY, 1870-1879 211 

and significance. Here, for example, is the way the history 
of the Creston Church began: 

Saturday morning, late in November, 1869, at the hour of sunrise, the 
Rev. Robert Hunter, pastor of the Congregational church at Nevinville, 
called his wife to the door to look through his field glass twelve miles away 
over the prairie at a little cluster of tents perched upon the horizon. Said 
he: "They are staking out a new town over there, and as the Methodist 
minister preaches here tomorrow, I will ride over there and try to stick 
a stake for Christ." So he rode over in the afternoon, slept on a counter, 
and next morning held a service. In the middle of his sermon a number 
of carpenters who were shingling the first hotel were driven in by a snow- 
squall. When they had found comfortable places he said: "Since the 
Lord has driven you in where you must hear his Word, I will begin my 
sermon over again." And so he did; and thus he preached the first sermon 
in Creston and drove the first stake for the church. 

At the organizing council, the state of the thermometer 
tallied with the day of the month — 28 below zero. Two 
members, one of them Joseph Pickett, rode to the meeting 
six miles across the prairie due north. Father Todd walked 
eight miles from Tabor to take the cars at Hillsdale. One 
of the brethren remarked "The church that is born in a bliz- 
zard will never be killed by a white frost." The church was 
organized with seven members. It took half of the total 
male membership to fill the office of deacon, though they 
elected but one. 

A Yale theological student spends his summer vacation supply- 
ing Creston and Nevin. They built a compact and substantial 
little chapel suitable to their needs. 1874, June 13 and 14, two happy 
days in succession. On Saturday Mr. Calhoun is ordained, and on Sun- 
day the chapel dedicated free from debt. June 13, 1875, an unfamiliar 
face in the pulpit; the voice of a stranger leading the service, that of N. H. 
Whittlesey. 1876, Sept. 15, Friday evening — a festive scene in the chapel. 
Flowers, music, refreshments; a reception. For the first time in its his- 
tory the church possessed a pastor's wife. 1887, May 2, Monday evening — 
a resident membership of two hundred and two. The dear old chapel a 
perfect bower of beauty; tears, smiles, gifts, prayers, handclasps, bene- 
dictions and farewells (Whittlesey leaving). May 8, Sabbath — in God's 
good providence, without a single Sunday intervening, a new form is in 



212 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

the pulpit, another shepherd for the flock, another pastor's home in the 
parish; a new leader, with new ideas, new methods, new enthusiasms, 
(A. J. Van Wagner). A year and a third of toil, of many discouragements, 
of alternate hopes and fears, of bold expedients, of thorough planning, of 
generous self-sacrificing, of earnest, united, heroic effort by many willing 
hearts and busy hands, men, women and children helping as they did in 
the time of the Tabernacle, and behold! this glad day, the second of Sep- 
tember, 1888, this completed edifice and this joyful congregation" (the 
church dedicated). 

What a shame to crowd these great histories into a nutshell ; 
but it must be done ! 

The numerous dedications of this decade are also recorded 
in Chapter XVI. The activity of the churches in building 
houses of worship is suggested in the following from Superin- 
tendent Pickett: "The work of building churches is rapidly 
going forward. Ames has just completed a beautiful parson- 
age and now the church becomes self-sustaining. It is the 
leading denomination in this pleasant town. Dunlap has 
been completely revolutionized by the power of the divine 
Spirit, the church has more than doubled its effective strength 
and is now actively engaged in building a five thousand 
dollar church. The same is true of Magnolia, some sixty 
coming into membership, and a pleasant house of worship 
is now building, to cost something over $2,000. The little 
Welsh church at Gomer is building a beautiful little sanctuary 
to cost $2,000. Ottumwa has at a cost of about $25,000, 
one of the most tasteful and beautiful churches in the state, 
and the church here at Des Moines is at length in the midst 
of a much needed building enterprise. A commodious struc- 
ture, costing something over $20,000 is to be built. The 
church at Anita has its four thousand dollar edifice nearly 
completed, and in two weeks I go to the dedication of the 
Grand River church in Adair County." 

Many of the churches came to self-support. Among them : 
Atlantic, College Springs, Grand View, Mitchell, Manchester, 
Maquoketa, Onawa, Otho, Keosauqua, Rockford, Tipton, 



UP IN THE SIOUX COUNTRY, 1870-1879 213 

etc. The membership increased from ten thousand three 
hundred to fifteen thousand, five hundred. 

In this decade, as in all decades, "some are coming, some are 
going." A. W. Archibald began his twelve years' work in 
Iowa as a student in the summer of 1875 at Nevinville and 
Fontanelle. Does the good Doctor remember that at the 
end of that vacation experiment he wrote: " Why will ministers 
hang around Boston, New Haven and New York when great 
fields are untouched just outside? Why hang greedily around 
a single sheaf, when whole fields are white, and no man thrusts 
in his sickle?" A little more than half of his ministry was in 
the land of the " single sheaf," but both here and there he did 
splendid service. 

The decade introduced to our Iowa work W. L. Bray, of 
Newton, Clinton, Marshalltown, etc.; H. L. Chase, of Green 
Mountain; A. S. McConnell of Cresco; A. D. Kinser, Leroy S. 
Hand, Horace Robbins, C. H. Rogers, Stiles of Manchester, 
Jesse Taintor, George H. White, D. G. Youker, etc. 

Two men of this decade, and of all decades since, are Snow- 
den and Frisbie. They came in 1871. That certainly was 
event enough for one year! Snowden came in February and 
Frisbie in October. 

James E. Snowden came from Ohio and from Methodist 
Protestant parentage and training, but soon developed into a 
good Congregationalist of a unique type, — all his own, how- 
ever. In his sixteen years' pastorate at Oskaloosa that church 
reached high-water mark, though it still has all the future 
to improve upon that record. After one year at Storm Lake 
and eight good years at Le Mars, a stately church edifice being 
one of his monuments there, he took hold of the little mission- 
ary church at Fayette. In the three years of his pastorate 
there, he rebuilt the house of worship, added about a hundred 
to the membership and brought the church to self-support. 
Twelve fruitful years at Cedar Falls brings this grand old 
patriarch down to date, pastor emeritus there busy still sup- 



214 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

plying the many churches which call for his services. Of this 
unique, forceful, facetious, brotherly man a booklet could be 
written. May he go very late to the better world! 

Alvah Lillie Frisbie came of the purest blood of the Pil- 
grim stock, though himself a New York Yankee, born in Dela- 
ware County October 22, 1830. Father Turner would call 
him a " Yankee of the second edition." On his twentieth 
birthday he learned his first lesson in Latin grammar, and 
went on, through Courtland Academy, Oberlin and Amherst 
Colleges, Yale and Andover Seminaries to his first pastorate 
of five years' duration at Ansonia, Connecticut, beginning 
in February, 1860. One of the five years he was " at the front" 
in the work of the Christian Commission and as Chaplain 
of the 20th Connecticut Regiment ; then six years at Danbury, 
and then Plymouth, Des Moines, for twenty-nine years pastor, 
and to this day pastor emeritus. 

For nearly thirty years he was the leading Congregational 
minister of the state; beyond dispute the primate of the Con- 
gregational bishops of Iowa. By his position in the Cathedral 
parish, by his vigor of intellect, and by the abounding grace 
of good-will and fellowship he gained and held this high distinc- 
tion, and, what is rare, excited no envy thereby. The good 
Doctor's testimony is: "The long pastorate has been one of 
prolonged blessing and joy, in the fellowship of the splendid 
men of the Congregational ministry of Iowa, in the love and 
sympathy of the Plymouth people, and in the feeling that the 
'labor in the Lord' was not in vain. For all, His name be 
praised!" 

Another new man of the decade who has grown to ripeness 
of years in the state, is Ezra C. Moulton. Brother Moulton 
came into the ministry by way of a legal training and an edi- 
torial sanctum. He was born April 23, 1829, in the Province 
of Quebec, of Yankee parents who had strayed over the bor- 
der. His boyhood was spent in Illinois, his young manhood 
in Wisconsin; his education was divided between the two 



UP IN THE SIOUX COUNTRY, 1870-1879 215 

states, culminating in Beloit Academy, not yet a college; his 
legal training was gained in the office supplemented by one 
year in the New York College of Law. Superintendent 
Adams drew him from the editorship of a temperance paper 
in Missouri to the pastorate of the Fayette church, his work 
beginning in June, 1875. He served in many places, every- 
where revealing himself a man of intellectual brilliancy, an 
exceptionally gifted preacher, the winner of admiring friends. 
Though past his fourscore years and living in retirement 
in Des Moines, his zest for life, his interest in current events 
and the clearness of his keen mind make him "a wonder unto 
many." The record of his services is: Fayette, two years; 
Mason City, five years; New Hampton, two years; Humboldt, 
one year; Ames, three years; Shenandoah, two years; Red 
Oak, seven years; Corning, two years. 

"Some are coming, some are going. 11 Harvey Adams is 
growing old but will not acknowledge it. Bowen's Prairie 
wants a "man with considerable experience. " "I frankly 
told them," he says, "that some of the Fairfax people thought 
me too old to preach. I am an old minister for the West, 
nearly sixty-seven, but I need no horse for a field like this. 
I have walked to Monticello, about five miles, in one hour 
and five minutes. My health was never better and my cour- 
age is unflagging." Thus he boasts of his strength, all the 
while shaking from head to foot with the palsy. Father 
Emerson confesses that he is "beginning to feel the wear." 
In 1871 he is confined to the house for a month by a fall from 
his carriage. In the spring of 1872 so lame that he must use 
crutches and suffering from frequent attacks of the ague, 
and a violent cough, he writes: "I have seen no time for thirty 
years when there seemed such ground for fear that my preach- 
ing days are numbered." In September he writes: "On my 
way to my Sabbath appointments, on a lonely road, fifteen 
miles from home, I fell from my carriage in a state of insen- 
sibility. I was soon found and cared for, or I must have 



216 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

perished from exposure, the injuries received in the fall, and 
the shock to my system. For several days I could not be 
taken home, and for weeks was unable to engage in any public 
work. I now meet my Sabbath engagements, preaching 
twice and doing a little pastoral work, although the physicians 
advised me to give up all hope of preaching the present year 
if ever." In the minutes of 1879, this once pastor of a dozen 
churches, is assigned only the little church at Elk Creek. 

Calls to the higher service are much more frequent in this 
decade than ever before, for many of our ministers are getting 
old enough to be promoted. We have already noted Superin- 
tendent Guernsey's call to — 

"Such great offices as suit 
The full-grown energies of heaven," 

and the release of Brother Bixby and Father Allen. 

Early in the first year of the decade, February 21, 1870, 
Erastus Ripley of the Band was called to his reward. He 
was born in Coventry, Connecticut, March 15, 1815. His 
only pastorate in Iowa was at Bentonsport, 1844-1848; and 
his only other field of service in the state was in Iowa College, 
from its beginning in 1848 until its removal to Grinnell in 
1859. Closing his work with the college, he returned to 
Connecticut and continued in school work up to the time of 
his death. He was an excellent teacher, a good preacher, 
and a worthy member of the Band. 

May 22, 1870, Brother S. J. Whitten of Wittenberg, was 
called to his reward. October 29, 1870, the call came to 
S. P. Sloan of McGregor. He was one of our best preachers. 
How he did preach in the days of the " irrepressible conflict! " 
" He stiffened all our backbones by his sermons in those days, " 
said Governor Samuel Merrill. No wonder Plymouth of 
Des Moines gave him a call. He accepted, but a more com- 
manding summons took the precedence. 

The next to be called was G. L. Woodhull of Onawa, Octo- 



UP IN THE SIOUX COUNTRY, 1870-1879 217 

ber 1, 1870. "The chief memorial of him is the stately edi- 
fice erected almost wholly through his labor and influence." 
While working on the building he contracted a cold which 
caused his death. The house is now the City Library. 

Brother Sloan and James J. Hill came together to their 
coronation day. Mr. Hill was born at Phippsburg, Maine, 
in May, 1815, and was educated at Bowdoin and Andover. 
He also was a member of the Band reaching Iowa, with Mr. 
Ripley in the spring of 1844. His first Iowa fields were Garna- 
villo, Sodom and Gomorrah, and all of Clayton County, 
where it is said the staple food at the time was "corn-dodgers, 
bear's meat, and wild honey." Later he had pastorates at 
Indiantown, Green Mountain, Genoa Bluffs and Fayette; 
He also served churches in Illinois, at Albany and Savannah 
and in Minnesota, at Blencoe and Hutchinson, at which place 
his choir was composed of the famous Hutchinson family 
of New Hampshire. From 1865 to 1868, he was Agent of the 
American Missionary Association for Iowa, Kansas and Minne- 
sota. In his fruitful ministry he organized seven churches, 
built as many houses of worship, gave the first dollar to Iowa 
College, and many other dollars besides, and raised up two 
noble sons, James and Gershom, for the work of the Kingdom. 
His place of burial is in the Hazelwood Cemetery in Grinnell. 

December 11th, of this same year, the call came to G. D. A. 
Hebard of Oskaloosa. He was a native of Vermont, and 
studied at Amherst, and Union Seminary. His father was a 
Baptist, his mother a Methodist, his wife an Episcopalian, 
and as for himself he hardly knew whether he was a Presby- 
terian or a Congregationalist. One of the great services of 
his ministry was the uniting of the Congregational and Pres- 
byterian churches in Iowa City. He left there as one of his 
monuments a strong church and the house of worship still in 
use. Joseph C. Cooper, the converted sea captain of Denmark 
and the flaming evangelist of Southeastern Iowa, closed his 
life at Cincinnati, August 23, 1872. The same year, November 



218 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

29, Rufus M. Sawyer, after good service at Iowa City and 
Anamosa, and a good beginning at Le Mars, was called to 
his reward. 

George B. Hitchcock was born in Great Barrington, Massa- 
chusetts, January 9, 1812. The family were early settlers 
in Illinois. He studied for a time in Illinois College, but was 
obliged to give up study on account of ill-health, and settled 
on a farm in Scott County, Iowa, where he had two brothers 
who were farmers, and another brother, Allen B., who was 
pastor at Davenport and Moline. After a little time he re- 
gained his health. Here Superintendent Reed found him 
and set him to work supplying destitute fields in the region. 
In 1845 we find him as a licentiate, acting pastor of the newly 
organized church at Oskaloosa. Two years later he takes on 
Eddyville, and this, with wide stretches of territory reaching 
up to Fort Des Moines, was his field until 1853. Then still 
newer fields attracted his attention, and he began a ministry 
of nine years at Lewis. For three years longer, he served 
in Iowa at Exira, Magnolia, Harrison (Dunlap) and then 
passed on to other frontier services in Missouri, where, in the 
year 1872, he found his grave. One of the foundation stones 
of our goodly commonwealth is this noble frontiersman, 
George B. Hitchcock. 

May 26, 1873, H. S. Clarke of Williamsburg and Genoa 
Bluffs, his only Iowa field, died at the age of thirty-five. The 
record is: "Many young men were converted to Christ, and 
houses of worship were built on both of his fields during his 
pastorate." 

Benjamin F. Manwell was almost a stranger to us; he had 
but one year in Iowa. He died at Lawler February 24, 
1874. 

March 10, 1874, the summons came to 0. W. Merrill. For 
eight years beginning in June, 1862, he served with great 
success the church at Anamosa. He was one of Doctor 
Guernsey's special friends and helpers and was marked as a 



UP IN THE SIOUX COUNTRY, 1870-1879 219 



most suitable man for a Home Missionary Superintendency. 
On the resignation of Father Gaylord of Nebraska Mr. Merrill 
was appointed his successor in 1870. He gave himself to the 
work so unsparingly that at the end of three years, his health 
was broken hopelessly and soon the end was reached. 

April 5, 1874, Father Joseph Hurlbut received his discharge. 
Of the fifty years of his ministry, sixteen were given to New 
York, three to Vermont, eight to Massachusetts, six to Ohio 
and seventeen to Iowa, all of these to Fort Atkinson and vicin- 
ity. Here, for all these years, labored this gifted man, poet, 
philosopher, preacher; but most of all a humble home mission- 
ary, deliberately choosing the waste-places as a field of labor. 
"Bury me without display," he said, "with no needless cost, 
in a plain way, as becomes a poor old missionary." It could 
hardly be otherwise, for he was a "poor old missionary/ ' 
who had given fifty years of service to the churches for his 
"board and clothes," and these of the plainest sort. " Neither 
he nor his friends had means for any other than a plain burial. 
Plain were the people, from farm and shop, that thronged his 
funeral, and humble was the cemetery where they laid him. 
As he lived and died, so was he buried." But when he died a 
royal'soul passed up to God's eternal glory. 

A month later, May 7, another royal soul was translated, 
Father Thomas Tenney. For twenty-five years his home was 
at Plymouth, near Mason City. When I was ordained at 
Osage in 1868, the brethren said: "You must get Father 
Tenney to offer the ordaining prayer, for nobody in all our 
ministry prays like Father Tenney." And indeed it was so. 
One of his daughters was the wife of Cryus Hamlin of 
Constantinople. 

August 26 brought release to another old soldier of the 
cross, J. S. Barris of Salem. He began as a Methodist preacher. 
"Charges were brought against him for praying for the negro 
and attending a colored church." He sought fellowship in a 
communion where such conduct is not sin. Begged by his 



220 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

accusers to return, he said: "No, I have found a church fellow- 
ship that affords me peace and sympathizes with my convic- 
tions of right. I will remain where I am." He gave Iowa six 
years of good service in his ripe old age. 

The first, in the obituary list of 1875 is Beriah King of 
National. This was his only parish in Iowa. He died 
January 19. 

A. V. House, a flame of consuming zeal, went out 
at Lawler, May 27, as Brother Manwell had done a year 
before. 

The next funeral was in Algona, not yet that of the old patri- 
arch, but that of his successor, H. B. Underwood. He had 
had but a year in Algona, but it brought great results. Among 
the converts of the year was an old soldier of the Crimea, 
one of the "six hundred" of Balaklava. The pastor died 
September 2, leaving a bride of two months and a host of 
friends to mourn his untimely death. 

At College Springs also there was this year a funeral, Brother 
Davis R. Barker falling at his post of honor and usefulness, 
October 22. 

And now we are at Algona again, this time with a large 
concourse of people from all the countryside, to bury that 
old " Patriarch of the Prairie," Father Taylor. We need not 
repeat here the story of his eventful life and his twenty years 
of pioneer service in Iowa. He preached in all parts of the 
county and beyond, in schoolhouses, log cabins, dug-outs, 
wherever a few people could be gathered together. He taught 
singing school, served as County Superintendent of Schools, 
was once County Judge, and was identified with all the impor- 
tant movements which went to the making of the county and 
the adjoining regions. His activity did not cease in his old 
age. He continued to take long rides over the prairies 
until his failing strength finally forced him to desist. So he 
passed on, this mild, gentle, genial, forceful man; a man of 
great energy and of great firmness of purpose, methodical, 



UP IN THE SIOUX COUNTRY, 1870-1879 221 

clearminded, studious, irrepressibly and irresistibly humorous, a 
beautiful specimen of a Christian gentleman, "Father Taylor," 
one of the treasures of our Congregational Iowa! He died 
February 29, 1876. 

The obituary list of 1877 includes the names of Orlando 
Clark of the Blind Asylum at Vinton, the date of his death, 
April 2; E. P. Whiting of De Witt, Robert McGuian of Mount 
Pleasant and G. A. Paddock of Rockford. Mr. Paddock 
was for three years my room-mate in Chicago Theological 
Seminary. What tales he could tell of the hardships of those 
years! He had "a place for everything and everything in its 
place — " with his room-mate it was not so. The year 1878 
records the death of George W. Palmer of Polk City and Ogden, 
and Dr. George Thatcher of Keokuk, Waterloo, Iowa City 
and the State University. M. K. Cross in his obituary of 
the President says: " Doctor Thatcher was a strong man in 
every way. His powerful physical frame was matched with 
a strong will. He bore at times an aspect of great severity. 
He was mightily indignant with shams of every sort. He 
had little patience with 'theological free-thinkers and minis- 
terial empirics. "' And yet he was great also in his gentle- 
ness, sympathy and charity. He declared on one occasion 
with deep emotion that he did not envy the most brilliant 
orators and statesmen half so much as he did the pioneer 
brethren of the Association who, with prayer and toil and 
sacrifice, laid the foundation of the Congregational churches 
of Iowa. 

The mortuary list for 1879 includes the names of Philo 
Canfield of Washington, who died February 11; Reed Wilkin- 
son of Fairfield, who died August 24; Eldridge G. Carpenter 
of Golden Prairie, who died August 25, and Joseph Pickett 
whose passing was November 17. He began his Home 
Missionary Superintendency of Southern Iowa in July of 
1869. He was transferred to the Rocky Mountain district 
in April, 1878. "In this service, on a tempestuous night, 



222 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

in a blinding storm, intent upon his work and oblivious of 
self, he laid down his life and was not for God took him." 

"Thus, with heart and strength unbated, 
From the battle's thickest strife, 
Like the saint of old, translated, 
He was ushered into life." 



Chapter XI 
MATURITY, 1880-1889 

Probably the word immaturity, would still more fitly express 
the status of Congregational Iowa in the '80s, for, of course, 
no church is complete, and the demand for new churches is as 
great as ever, while our colleges are little more than the names 
of institutions that are yet to be, and while the opportunities 
for growth were never greater. 

In 1880 Superintendent Adams made report: " We have done 
a work here, and there is more to do, for Iowa is yet to grow. 
Nearly half of her soil has never yet been touched by the plow 
or inclosed in farms. Her water-courses still flow unconscious 
of the power in them. Her mines are yet to be opened and her 
railroads built. Something, much, has been done but more 
remains. The past is brief but there is much of history in it. 
We are on the verge of great possibilities." 

A year later he wrote again: "We have a field, stimulating 
in both history and promise. Looking backward, we see a 
development of this portion of the great Home Missionary 
field that has been simply marvelous. We entered it, some of 
us, upon the saddle, fording streams and traversing prairies, 
to find embryo villages of a few thousand people on its eastern 
border. All the interior and the west were still unexplored 
and ud traversed, sa^ve by the red man, the deer, and the 
buffalo. Now the whole area is covered with a million and a 
half of people, with railroads to whirl us within twenty miles 
of the remotest of their homes; while villages, towns and cities 
have sprung up everywhere on these arteries of trade — schools, 
colleges and churches accompanying them. Now Iowa is no 



224 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

longer on the frontier, but central of states, the highway of 
the nation, with a history, a character, a people worthy of such 
a position. We thank God for what it has achieved, and turn 
with fresh courage and hope to our unfinished task." 

In 1883 the question, " Shall we organize more churches?" 
was thus answered: 

There is abundant opportunity to do so, and undoubtedly the kingdom 
of Christ would thus be greatly enlarged and strengthened. A new church 
has just been organized at Victor, more recently one in South Ottumwa, 
and one in East Des Moines will soon follow. In other cities of the state 
there is the same opportunity and demand. A revival at Aurelia has just 
resulted in the organization of a church with forty-six members. A few 
days of evangelistic labor at Gait makes imperative the formation of 
another new church there. "Here in Wright County we must have two 
more churches," — so says the venerable bishop of the county, Father 
Sands. He also adds, "In Kossuth County two more churches are an 
absolute necessity: one more church is needed in Hancock County, two in 
Franklin and three in Humboldt." According to the opinion of a brother 
who lives in the region, Clay County should have four more churches, 
O'Brien two, Palo Alto one, Pocahontas one, Dickinson two. Another 
brother who well knows the demands of the field says that Cherokee County, 
which already has four churches, should have three more, and that just 
over the line in Buena Vista County another church should be organized 
immediately. A brother residing in Union County says that in that 
county and the seven counties clustering about it, at least eight churches 
should be organized, and no telling how many more when certain pro- 
jected lines of railroad are completed. Along the Marion extension of the 
Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul railroad, starting up new towns all the 
way from Marion to Council Bluffs, we have not organized a single church — 
but not because we lacked opportunity. Central western Iowa we have 
scarcely touched, although if we are looking for a " Congregational element " 
we should find it here in abundance. 

There is, however, some occasion for the caption of this 
chapter; for we had now reached the limits of our territory; 
no more great sections were open to settlement. Our churches 
numbered more than two hundred, some of them were 
more than forty years old. A good many of them were fairly 
strong in membership and wealth. Iowa College was securely 



MATURITY, 1880-1889 225 

founded — unless overtaken by some great calamity. And, 
more than all, the Pilgrims of the state were about to venture 
on self-support. 

As we have already seen Congregational Iowa is part and 
product of that great movement called Home Missions. All 
the prospectors were home missionaries. All the patriarchs 
were home missionaries. Father Turner was missionary and 
agent of the Home Missionary Society. All the members of 
the Band were home missionaries. Each one of them came to 
Iowa, bearing the commission of the American Home Mis- 
sionary Society, the expenses of the journey being provided 
by the society, and for years the bulk of their suppoit came 
from its treasury. 

The " other men labored' ' in the early times under the 
auspices of this agency, and for forty years the ministers of 
Iowa were for the most part, home missionary pastors, and all 
the early churches were planted by this institution. The 
Denmark church received aid from the Home Missionary So- 
ciety, as did Burlington, Dubuque, Danville, Davenport, Fair- 
field, Lyons, Farmington, Keosauqua, Mount Pleasant, 
Muscatine, Maquoketa, Oskaloosa, Ottumwa, Waterloo, Cedar 
Falls, Fort Dodge, Cedar Rapids, Council Bluffs, Sioux 
City, etc. 

Only a very few churches escaped the tutelage of the 
Society. Among these few are Keokuk, Grinnell, Chester 
Center, Des Moines Plymouth, Des Moines Greenwood, 
Tabor and Farragut. This is nearly the complete list. At 
Keokuk a bequest took the place of the Society. At Grinnell 
a bunch of preachers in the membership, serving the church 
" without money and without price," constituted a home 
missionary society. At Chester Center Grinnell ministers 
and college professors kept the church off the Home Missionary 
list. Des Moines Plymouth would have been on the list only 
that the pastor J. M. Chamber lain simply would not accept 
Home Missionary aid. Tabor refused aid from the American 

16 



226 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Home Missionary Society, on account of its supposed com- 
plicity with slavery, but turned to the American Missionary 
Association for assistance. Farragut church was a trans- 
plantation from Illinois, and started strong, and, at times was 
willing to forego the luxury of a preacher, and so got along 
without aid. At Greenwood two or three men of means organ- 
ized themselves into a home missionary society. 

Each non-home missionary church had a good excuse for 
its delinquencies in this respect! For forty-five years, the old 
American Home Missionary Society, "the mother of us all," 
assisted us in laying the foundations of our churches in Iowa. 
More than half a million of dollars went into the planting of 
these churches, four-fifths of it coming from blessed, beautiful, 
bountiful old New England. The Iowa churches put into the 
work of home missions during these years $83,000. The date 
of self-support is July 1, 1882. For more than a dozen years 
the matter had been under discussion. In 1869 the first steps 
were taken for the organization of a State Home Missionary 
Society looking toward ultimate self-support. The committee 
then appointed reported in 1871 a constitution whereby a State 
Home Missionary Society was constituted identical with the 
State Association, — an arrangement which has continued to 
this day. 

The closing paragraph of the report of this committee is as 
follows : 

The committee therefore regard the time as having fully come for an 
advance movement in the cause of home missions for this state. And 
we recommend to the serious and prayerful deliberation of the Association 
whether we ought not to follow the example of our brethren in Illinois 
and iix a limit — say the year 1880 — beyond which our churches shall 
assume the entire support of home missions in Iowa, and no more ask aid 
from the national society. 

In 1876 at the General Association, H. S. De Forest made a 
strong appeal for immediately facing the question of self- 
support, and from that time the subject was constantly before 



T. 0. DOUGLASS 
Secretary 



CLAYTON WELLES 
President 




J. E. SNOWDEN 


J. M. STURTEVANT 


A. L. FRISBIE 


Executive Committee 


Executive Committee 


Executive Committee 


G. H. LEWIS 


J. H. MERRILL 


ANNIE D. MERRILL 


Treasurer 


Treasurer 


Treasurer 



OFFICERS IOWA HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY 



MATURITY, 1880-1889 227 

the churches. The national society too began to drop signifi- 
cant hints that it was time for Iowa to take herself out of the 
way of other and more needy claimants of the bounty of New 
England. 

In the spring of 1882 the matter was before the local Asso- 
ciations, and we came to the state meeting at Ottumwa pre- 
pared to take decisive action on the great question of self- 
dependence. 

We took the step with a good deal of hesitation. Many of 
us, including the old Superintendent, and the Secretary that 
was to be, doubted the wisdom of the new adventure. And, 
with less than two hundred churches in effective operation, 
and more than one-half of these missionary churches, and with 
home missionary resources as recorded by the contributions 
of the previous year, only $7,000 it did seem a foolhardy 
undertaking. When the majority vote, taken at the meeting 
of the State Association at Ottumwa, June 2, 1882, committed 
us to the venture, some of us said: " It is either an inspiration 
or a blunder, and we don't know which.' • 

The great argument was the pressing needs of the region 
beyond. We said: "Like as not, Iowa will suffer by trying 
to go alone, but no matter, the interests of the great work at 
large demand that the sacrifice should be made. So the great 
argument prevailed, and we started out on the great experiment 
of self-support, the state organization bearing the title, "The 
Iowa Congregational Home Missionary Society," the first 
Secretary, Rev. T. 0. Douglass, of Osage, and the first execu- 
tive committee: Dr. A. L. Frisbie, chairman; its other 
members, Dr. J. M. Sturtevant, Rev. J. E. Snowden, Rev. 
W. P. Bennett, and J. H. Merrill, Esq., of the Plymouth 
church, Des Moines. 

Why was not the old Superintendent retained as Secretary? 
A large majority of us wanted the old hand at the helm as we 
were passing into strange waters, but there were a few who 
thought him too good, too delicate, too refined and spiritual 



228 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

for the rugged service. They wanted a man with more muscle 
in his arm, more bronze in his cheek, and more cheek on his 
face — especially for the " beggarly" part of the work; so the 
choice fell upon the man from Osage. 

That the experiment of self-support was not a blunder the 
achievements of the first decade — and now of almost three 
decades — will testify. The first decade was not especially 
favorable for rapid development. There was no great influx 
of population. Those were years of immigration indeed, but 
of migration also. On March 20, 1883, a train on the Mil- 
waukee Road pulled out of Mason City west-bound with 
four hundred and twenty-five passengers, at least ninety 
per cent, of them bound for Dakota, and this was repeated day 
after day for weeks and months. 

Late in the decade there was a change; and our people were 
coming back from the Dakotas and the Coast, with drooping 
heads and empty purses, glad enough to get back into the 
"garden of Eden"; but on the whole, the decade was one of 
slow growth, the increase in population being only 287,000 as 
against 430,000 in the previous decade. 

Nevertheless, in those first ten years of self-support, more 
than sixty churches were organized; the net increase of 
membership was nearly ten thousand; the missionary force 
was enlarged by forty men; and the home missionary contri- 
butions increased from $7,400 to $20,780, while the church 
buildings increased from one hundred and eighty-one to two 
hundred and fifty-seven, and the parsonages from forty-three 
to one hundred and five. 

Self-support was voted June 2, to take effect July 1. Be- 
tween these two dates Iowa Congregationalism was overtaken 
at one of its centers by a great calamity. Sunday morning, 
June 18, the news was flashed everywhere that the evening 
before a mighty whirlwind had struck Grinnell, that a large 
part of the town was in ruins and the college utterly demolished. 
This was the dreadful work of a storm or storms, which passed 



\ 



MATURITY, 1880-1889 229 

through almost the entire length of the state from Carroll 
County to Burlington, and on into Illinois. Much damage 
was done to property and an occasional life lost at various 
points along this path, but the fury of the storm centered in 
Grinnell and its vicinity. Her property loss was not less than 
a half million, while of the fifty-seven killed in the cyclone, 
thirty-nine belonged to her. The following is one of the 
many descriptions of the disaster: 

An hour before sunset the northwestern sky was hung with conical, 
downpointing clouds, the like of which none of us had ever before seen. 
After sunset and even when the darkness was gathering, the western sky 
half way to the zenith was lurid, brilliant and unearthly, an ominous sight 
which fascinated us while it filled us with an undefined dread. Almost 
before the brilliant apparition in the west had disappeared the storm broke 
upon us. A distant heavy roar was heard like the rumblings of a dozen 
mighty freight trains. With a dense dark cloud of dust the wind came 
sweeping leaves, branches of trees, chimneys, houses and everything in 
its awful pathway. The rain came like a waterspout, blinding flashes of 
lightning were continuous; and amid the wreck and roar came total dark- 
ness, wild confusion and chaos. As the tornado bore down upon us, most 
of the terror-stricken people fled to their cellars for such safety as they 
could afford. All say they felt the monster coming and that it had the 
power and rock of an earthquake in it. It seemed to strike a sliding or 
gyrating blow, as if its mighty power were taking them in a circle to com- 
press them to utter demolition. At places it would appear to crush a 
house together as in a vise; then it would expand itself hurling the debris 
in every direction and carrying it miles away. In places it would cut off 
the front or side or take out the end of a building. Again it would lift a 
house from its foundation and drop it in a complete wreck near by. Some 
houses were crushed into shapeless ruins and their rooms were filled with 
the fragments of other buildings. A phaeton was taken from a barn and 
its wreck lodged in a tree thirty feet from the ground. 

The college buildings were struck with terrific force: the stone building 
was unroofed and the upper story destroyed while the brick building 
went down in a mass of ruins. Seven students were in their rooms in the 
third story, three were killed and others severely injured. One-fifth of 
the town was in ruins in less than ten minutes from the time it was struck. 
Dead, dying and mangled forms of men, women and children were strewn 
around, torn, bruised and mutilated in every conceivable way, so covered 
with mud that they could not at first be recognized. Thirty loaded freight 



230 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

cars were hurled in a confused wreck from the Central Railroad, and 
three miles away an approaching Rock Island train was caught up and 
thrown into the ditch, crushing to death two men in its ruins. 

Such, in part, is the tragic tale of the unchaining of elemental 
forces against the frail fabrics constructed by human hands. 
But stronger and more majestic still is the note of human faith 
which rises from the midst of the ruins and the very hearts 
of those who were stricken; the belief that the Lord was in 
the whirlwind, and that this visitation was, under his provi- 
dence, to lead the town and college out to better things. 

This faith, justified by the works of such men as J. B. Grin- 
nell and President Magoun, appealing to the sympathy of 
thousands to whom Grinnell and Iowa College now became 
household words, brought the fulfillment of its own hopes, 
and the " cyclone" experience became a new birth to the 
college — the beginning of a larger life. When the storm 
struck, the property of the college was, roughly speaking, 
endowment, $90,000, grounds, $10,000, buildings and equip- 
ments, $100,000. Two buildings were standing on the campus 
and there never had been more, though the foundation for a 
third was laid. The annual attendance was between three hun- 
dred and three hundred and fifty. Notwithstanding the loss 
through the storm of some $75,000 worth of property, the 
series of college catalogues shows scarcely a perceptible check 
to mark the great disaster. A slight decrease in students for 
the first two years soon gave place to a decided increase. The 
catalogue following the tornado reports two new buildings, and 
within five years the two had become four, the library was 
larger than ever before, the buildings were on a new and large 
scale, and the endowment somewhat increased. The dona- 
tions to the college immediately following the great disaster 
amounted to about $100,000. 

Another cyclone struck the state only a few days later, the 
twenty-seventh day of June, in the shape of a constitutional 
prohibitory amendment. Our ministers and members had a 



MATURITY, 1880-1889 231 

conspicuous part in the great campaign. One of our number, 
however, for a consideration, "took the stump for the other 
side. But with substantial unanimity we rejoiced in this 
victory for temperance, soon to grieve when the amendment 
was declared unconstitutional, to rejoice again in 1884 over 
statutory prohibition, and finally to endure with mortification 
and disgust the Mulct Law nullification brought in by political 
intrigue. 

In 1882 also the Young People's Society of Christian En- 
deavor began to take its place among the educational, evange- 
listic and missionary agencies of our churches, the first church 
to organize an Endeavor Society in Iowa being the Congre- 
gational church of Monticello, March 28, 1883. For years 
almost every week brought in the report of new societies 
organized. 

The first Junior Endeavor Society in the state or in the 
world was at Tabor, organized under the suggestion and by 
the inspiration of the pastor, J. W. Cowan; the date, March 
24, 1884. A close second was the one at Gilman; Mrs. Slocum 
even contending that the Gilman organization was the earlier. 

Among the new evangelistic and missionary agencies of the 
decade we count as one of great value the State Sunday School 
Superintendent, an office now appearing for the first time. For 
many years the Sunday school work of the state was under the 
supervision of the Home Missionary Society, but in May, 1882, 
just as we assumed self-support, the Sunday school work of 
the denomination was committed to the Publishing Society, 
the name of that organization henceforth being "The Congre- 
gational Sunday School and Publishing Society." In 1883 the 
Society began to put Superintendents into the various states 
where Sunday school missionary work was especially needed. 
In 1884 J. R. Knodell of Mason City was appointed Superin- 
tendent for Iowa and began his work November 1. His excel- 
lent services were terminated by a physical break-down after 
little more than a year of strenuous activity. From April 1, 



232 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

1886, the office was filled and magnified by good Brother C. A. 
Towle, who continued in the service until the day of his death, 
February 22, 1899; his successors in office being Brother 0. 0. 
Smith, busy and useful in the work for five and a half years; 
and Dr. H. W. Tuttle, loved, trusted and honored by every- 
body, the present Superintendent of Sunday schools, and 
General Missionary of the Iowa Home Missionary Society. 

Still other Christian forces were in this decade set in opera- 
tion in the founding of academies, at Wilton, September 1, 
1880; and at Pattersonville (Hull), September 22, 1884. These 
schools did well for a season, but, lacking a proper local con- 
stituency, circumscribed by the growth of high schools, and 
somehow failing to enlist the support of the denomination, 
neither was able to gain a permanent place. In 1896 Wilton 
Academy gave place to the German-English College which 
in 1904 removed to Redfield, South Dakota, while Hull 
Academy, about the same time closed its doors. 

We Congregationalists of Iowa have made a failure of our 
Academy work. The Denmark school has a noble record, 
but its present life is feeble, and the future is not promising. 
Bradford Academy, originating in the heart and brain of 
J. K. Nutting, and made a blessed reality, in the fall of 1865, 
by the genius and enthusiasm and sacrifices of its first Prin- 
cipal, W. P. Bennett, ran well for a season, scores of boys and 
girls incited by it to a great hunger and thirst for a higher 
education and the higher life, but at the end of a dozen years, 
submitted to the inevitable and closed its doors. 

The High School has killed and supplanted, but it has not 
filled the place of the old Academy. We ought to have today 
at least four strong flourishing schools of secondary grade in 
the four quarters of the state. 

This decade was signalled by the advent of "Congregational 
Iowa." The first issue was in January, 1883. There has never 
been a stupid issue. Doctor Sturtevant carried the chief 
editorial burdens for a time, and then for years the responsi- 



MRS. D. P. BREED 
President 



MRS. E. M. VITTUM 
Secretary Children's Work and President 



MRS. 



T. 0. DOUGLASS 

President 




MISS ELLA E. MARSH MRS. H. H. ROBBINS 

Secretary Secretary 

MRS. M. J. NICHOSON MRS. H. K. EDSON MISS BELLE L. BENTLEY 

Treasurer Treasurer Treasurer 

OFFICERS W. H. M. U. OF IOWA 1886-1911 



MATURITY, 1880-1889 233 

bility was on the shoulders of Doctor Frisbie. All the while 
Secretary Douglass carried the financial burdens of the paper, 
and in later years, the care of its editorial columns. It has 
been an important agency in the work of the state. " May its 
shadow never grow less," and may it "grow brighter and 
brighter unto the perfect day." 

In this decade also, the Woman's Home Missionary Union 
began its blessed ministry to the state and to all the homeland 
missions. At the meeting of the State Association held in 
Plymouth Church, Des Moines, in 1877, Superintendent 
Adams introduced a very modest resolution to the effect that 
the Home Missionary Society would appreciate the sym- 
pathetic and systematic assistance of the women of the 
churches. The resolution was promptly, emphatically, and 
somewhat rudely, voted down. But none the less the resolu- 
tion carried in the minds and hearts of many of the women, 
and, in fullness of time, June 4, 1886, at Marion, the Woman's 
Home Missionary Union was organized under the guiding 
hand of Mrs. T. 0. Douglass who was for ten years president 
of the society. For the past six years that office has been 
filled by Mrs. D. P. Breed. 

The gleanings of the good women of the Union are summar- 
ized as follows: 

I. C. H. M. S $84,698 

A. M. A 30,580 

Education Society 7,860 

C. S. S. and P. S 2,393 

C. C. B. S 5,274 

Ministerial Relief 503 

Expenses and Specials 3,219 

Total $134,527 

Ruth, the Moabitess in the field of Boaz, did not glean so well. 

In this first decade of self-support still other new missionary 

agencies were introduced. Carl Hess was sent out as a general 

missionary among the Germans. So also we sent John Musil 



234 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

to be missionary among the thirty thousand Bohemians in the 
state. D. E. Skinner was made pastor at large in Northwestern 
Iowa, and A.M. Beaman down in Southwestern Iowa; and later, 
R. W. Hughes in Central Iowa. We put Brother J. S. Norris 
and Brother B. C. Tillitt and Brother H. M. Skeels into the 
the field as home missionary evangelists. 

With these general workers, and over one hundred mis- 
sionary pastors, the Home Missionary Society was doing " land- 
office business"; and that is why sixty-six churches were or- 
ganized in the decade, and nearly ten thousand added to the 
membership of the churches. The list of the churches organ- 
ized in this decade may be found in Chapter XVI. It is 
needless to say that the list shows a drift of population to the 
West and especially to the Northwest. Thirty-two of the 
new churches were in Northwestern Iowa, and more than fifty 
in the western half. Thirty of the churches were on new lines 
of railroad. Records like the following abound : "Castana: — 
This church was organized by A. M. Beaman the 14th day of 
last August, just one day before the railroad track-layers 
reached the town. ,, Baxter, Berwick and Hudson are 
early passengers on the "Diagonal," "Mapleleaf" (Chicago 
and Great Western). North Park and Pilgrim churches of 
Des Moines indicate that the city was growing, also that 
Doctor Frisbie was not absorbed in his own parish, but 
was planning and working for the building up of Christian 
churches in the Congregational way throughout the whole 
state. 

At Doon, "Bonnie Doon," in a new community on a new 
road, Congregationalism proved to be the "solvent of the 
sects," although the sects outnumber the Congregational stock 
three or four to one. It is said that Congregationalism rode 
into Hawarden on the cow-catcher of the first train. A church 
building and the round-house went up together. Ionia 
starting out with ninety-five members, was the result of an 
evangelistic campaign conducted by Rev. N. L. Packard of 



MATURITY, 1880-1889 235 

Nashua. He was called to attend a funeral in the community, 
and turned the service into an evangelistic meeting. The 
meetings went on until this number were ready for church 
membership. Later he added two other churches, Bassett 
and Chickasaw, by a like series of meetings held in these 
communities. 

Larchwood was the name of a twenty-two thousand acre 
farm owned by Sir Richard Sykes of Manchester, England. 
At the first service held on the farm, by Secretary Doug- 
lass, he gave out what to him were familiar hymns, but 
to his surprise, English carols, utterly foreign to Iowa 
soil, were sung. The church, however, has since been an- 
nexed to the United States, and has become just like the 
rest of us. 

For a time Father Upton's work seemed utterly lost in 
Dickinson County, but in this decade he lived again, and his 
work survived in the organization of the Milford church. The 
church building has been dedicated three times. Replying 
to his third invitation to the dedicatory service Secretary 
Douglass answered, "Yes, certainly, I always attend the 
Milford dedications." 

The Ottumwa South and Swedish churches of this decade 
show that Brother Spaulding's field where he found but one 
Congregationalist in 1843, was growing. When the South- 
side church was organized in 1883 there was not a single Con- 
gregationalist in the membership. A few years ago this 
church absorbed the Methodist Protestant church of the 
community, and by paying its debts, acquired its property. 
Now, the name changed to Plymouth, the membership is 
three hundred and twenty-seven. 

Primghar court-house stands at the exact geographical 
center of O'Brien County. The unusual name is coined from 
the initial letters of the names of the county officers and others 
interested in the locating of the town. The naming of the 
town is embalmed in verse, beginning as follows: 



236 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

"Pumphrey, the treasurer, drives the first nail, 
Roberts, the donor, is quick on the trail, 
Inman dips slyly the first letter in, 
McCormick adds M which make the full Prim; 
Green, thinking of groceries, gives then the G, 
Hayes drops then an H without asking a fee, 
Albright, the joker, with his jokes all at par, 
Rerick brings up the rear and crowns all Primghar." 

It is reported that a man coming from the East with a yoke 
of oxen, lest he should forget the place of his destination, 
named one of the oxen Prim and the other Ghar. The church 
organized there in 1888 has enlarged its building three times, 
and has now a membership of nearly two hundred. 

The Pilgrim and Mayflower churches of Sioux City indicate 
the prosperity of that city and of that portion of the state. 
The Pilgrim grew weary of the journey of life some years ago 
but the Mayflower remains in perpetual bloom. The church 
has now a fine property and a membership of about two hun- 
dred and fifty. 

In this decade we have our first " second" crop of churches. 
All the early churches, however small the community, took the 
title, "The First Congregational Church" of such and such a 
place, intimating the expectation that other churches would 
follow. 

Previous to 1880, the " second" churches were the Dubuque 
Immanuel, the Des Moines Moriah, and the New Hampton 
German. Now, in this decade, as already noted, two new 
churches were organized in Des Moines, two in Sioux City, 
and also the Dubuque Summit, the Avoca German, and the 
Britt Scandinavian. 

In this decade, too, will be noted a fresh cluster of foreign 
churches. The first church of Iowa with an un-english 
tongue, was our Long Creek Welsh church, organized in 
1845. Following this came Old Man's Creek, Flint Creek, 
Williamsburg, Georgetown, Givin, Gomer, Beacon, and 
Templeton, Our German Pilgrims organized their first church 



MATURITY, 1880-1889 237 

at Dubuque in 1847, and then at Garnavillo, Sherrill, Farmers- 
burg, Muscatine, Davenport, Grandview, Pine Creek, Lansing 
Ridge, Fort Atkinson and New Hampton, and others now 
extinct. 

To these churches of alien tongue, were now added in the 
first decade of self-support, the German churches of Avoca, 
Minden, Shelby, Moville, Des Moines and Sioux City; the 
Ottumwa Swedish; Wesley and Britt Dano-Norwegian; 
Bohemian missions were started at Iowa City, Luzerne and 
Vining; the Scandinavian and Bohemian work having its 
beginning in this decade. The fine fresh cluster of German 
churches was gathered for us by our German general mis- 
sionary, Carl Hess, a graduate of Iowa College, and a son 
of our early German Missionary at Garnavillo and Farmers- 
burg. All honor to Carl and to his brother Henry that they 
stayed by the German work of the state, to the end of their 
service here, when they might have done better for themselves 
in English churches! 

From this decade of the '80s until now we have been preach- 
ing the gospel to our people in six different languages — the 
English, the German, the Welsh, the Swede, the Dano- 
Norwegian, and the Bohemian. For a few years we gave 
the gospel to two or three French settlements in their own 
language. Probably the time is not far distant when in Iowa, 
"tongues shall cease." Davenport Bethlehem, once partly 
German, is now wholly English, and in the Old German 
Church by merging with Bethlehem into the Berea Church, 
the German is practically eliminated. Grandview once wholly 
German, is now wholly English, and English has been intro- 
duced more or less into all our German churches. Our Welsh 
people cling to "the mother-tongue which they love so well," 
calling it "the language of Canaan," but Beacon and Gomer 
have been born again with the new tongue, and English has 
been introduced more or less into all the Welsh churches. We 
are in no haste to pass an "act of uniformity" as to language, 



238 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

for it is our pleasure to give the gospel to the people, in "the 
languages in which they were born," as long as it may be prof- 
itable to do so, but the language of the common schools is 
sure to become the language of the churches. 

The decade of the '80s was one of church dedications far 
beyond any preceding. The number is fifty-five as shown 
in Chapter XVI. Each one of these dedications deserves a 
paragraph if not a page, but space forbids. Belmond church 
was sixteen years of age when its first house was dedicated, and, 
in connection with that service, Father Sands, pastor already 
for fourteen years, was installed! At the Otho dedication 
in December, 1883, it was said: "Although this church was 
organized in 1855 this is the first house of worship. They 
have worshipped all these twenty-eight years in private houses 
and in the schoolhouse. Fully one half of the great congre- 
gation present had never attended service in a church before." 
Of the Rock Rapids building it was said: "It is a beautiful 
building, inside and out, but not a chimney in the house will 
draw if the wind happens to be in the wrong direction. When 
will architects learn to consider these important matters?" 

In this decade we come to the beginning of the semi-centen- 
nials. The first is the semi-centennial of the work of Home 
Missions. This began in Dubuque in 1836. In 1886 we held 
the meeting of the association in Marion. At the Jubilee 
service held Sunday evening the question was asked, "Who in 
this audience was living in Iowa in 1836?" No one responded. 
Then all the ministers in the audience were requested to rise. 
The question, "Who of you were in pastoral work in Iowa 
five years ago?" seated about half of this company. As the 
questions went on, "Who were here ten, fifteen, twenty, 
twenty-five years ago?" the numbers grew fewer and fewer 
until only four were left to " witness the good confession" of 
forty years' service. Three of these had to go down at the 
next question, adding five years more, and Brother Julius 
A. Reed was left standing alone. In his address on that occa- 



MATURITY, 1880-1889 239 

sion he spoke of the strange distrust of Iowa Congregational- 
ism which prevailed in the minds of New England ministers 
in the early days; how it came to be and how it was at last 
removed; and he told of our escape from the bondage of the 
Presbyterians! Doctor Adams gave us the history of Iowa 
Home Missions by decades. Doctor Robbins, our oldest 
pastor, gave us a few glimpses of early missionary experiences, 
and Doctor Frisbie gave us a prophecy of "The Iowa to Be." 

Later in the decade seven churches passed their fiftieth 
milestone. Denmark held her Jubilee. May 3, 1888. Addresses 
ses were made by Reed, Adams, Salter and Secretary Douglass. 
At the time of the celebration the church had its fourth pastor, 
Asa Turner serving for thirty years, E. Y. Swift for thirteen, 
W. E. De Riemer three years, and A. K. Fox was in the midst 
of a pastorate of six years. The accessions to membership 
in the fifty years numbered seven hundred and ninety-four, 
but more than a hundred had died, four hundred and thirty- 
nine had been passed on to other churches and only a member- 
ship of one hundred fifty-nine remained. 

"Near the church spire stands the school," the Denmark 
Academy. From church and school — twin institutions one 
and inseparable — have gone out to bless the world good men 
and women by the scores, to be ministers and ministers' 
wives, missionaries, teachers, physicians, lawyers, heads of 
academies and colleges, and to adorn all the humbler walks 
of life. It is doubtful whether any other community within 
the state so small as this has been a greater force in the world 
and in the Kingdom of God than this community at Denmark. 

Burlington observed its semi-centennial with an historical 
address by the pastor, November 25, 1888, and by a reception 
given to the old people of the congregation, November 27. 
For the first five years of its existence this church had no 
settled pastor, but had occasional preaching from missionaries 
of the American Home Missionary Society; then, in 1843 came 
Horace Hutchinson of the Band, and then in 1846, William 



240 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Salter. At the end of fifty years the church's membership 
was a little beyond the three hundred mark. 

The celebration at Dubuque, beginning Sunday, May 12, 
1889, was an elaborate affair and full of interest and good cheer 
from the opening hour to the close. The homes of the pastors 
of the fifty years were divided by the full width of the continent 
and three of them were over seventy years of age, but they were 
all there with the exception of Jesse Guernsey, deceased. 
Sunday morning "the air was fairly electric with joyous 
anticipations as the pastors took seats on the platform." — 
Holbrook, Whiting, Bingham, Harrington and C. O. Brown 
the pastor at that time. Of course Doctor Holbrook, for 
twenty-one years pastor and now eighty-one years of age, 
preached the sermon. The week was given up to the cele- 
bration. There was a communion service. C. E. Harrington 
gave an address on "The Heroic Age of Congregationalism." 
There were sessions for reminiscences and a banquet and 
addresses by all the old pastors. Then letters and papers 
and some more addresses. Doctor McClure, speaking of 
the war-times said: "The pulpit of this church gave forth no 
uncertain sound. There were members of the church born 
and bred in slave states who held to the doctrine of states' 
rights and the theory that African slavery was not only right, 
but Christian, who, after the delivery of a certain sermon by 
Doctor Holbrook, left us, seceded and were no more with us 
forever. And the old bell that hung in the tower, it too, was 
true. It tolled out its sad notes when the news of defeat was 
brought to us and gave out its loudest notes of cheer when 
victory perched upon our banners. Its final notes of victory 
were too much for bell-metal to endure and it burst its bands 
while ringing out its gladdest notes for liberty and union." 
The church register at the time of this celebration showed a 
membership of three hundred and fifty-one. 

The Danville church came to its fiftieth anniversary June 
30, 1889, with its sixth pastor, L. T. Rowley, and sixty-one 



MATURITY, 1880-1889 241 

members. A month later, July 30, the Davenport church 
was fifty years of age. A. W. Archibald was pastor. He had 
been preceded by Oliver Emerson, A. B. Hitchcock, Ephraim 
Adams, G. F. Magoun, William Windsor, J. A. Hamilton, J. G. 
Merrill and M. L. Williston. The membership was three 
hundred and four. 

December 21 found Fairfield with its twelfth pastor, A. E. 
Arnold, Julius A. Reed being the first, and a membership of 
one hundred and sixty-six. 

Lyons passed its fiftieth milestone December 31, 1889. 
During the fifty years twenty different ministers supplied 
the church for a longer or shorter time, perhaps a dozen of 
them staying long enough to entitle them to be called pastors. 
The longest pastorate was that of Sidney Crawford, covering 
a period of ten years. Lorenzo White was pastor for three 
years and Doctor Magoun and S. M. Boss for four years each. 
In 1889 the membership was one hundred and sixty- three. 

In this decade we gave hearty welcome to many excellent 
men. Some of these came to stay awhile, and some to stay. 
Of this latter class was G. M. Orvis, the biggest Congregational 
preacher in Iowa. He came in 1880. He has had here three 
pastorates, being now in his sixteenth year at Summit, Dubuque. 
He has welcomed into the fellowship of Summit Church more 
than six • hundred people. The present membership is three 
hundred and eighty-three. Brother. J. H. Skiles was fresh from 
Andover in 1882. He is preeminently a Biblical student 
and preacher, his sermons always fresh and refreshing. He is 
doing a splendid work at Eldon. Wilson Denney, for a while 
at Clinton, for a long while at Charles City, is now beginning 
an extended pastorate at Cedar Rapids, for this is his habit, 
his social, pastoral and preaching qualifications binding him 
to his people with ties not easily broken. 

R. F Lavender was ordained in 1886, though before that he 
had performed the functions of a minister. He was a farmer 
with a large family, but he had the "gift of tongues" and the 

17 



242 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Spirit gave him utterance. There in the old church of Warren, 
now Hartwick, it did not make any difference whether the 
preacher of the day appeared or not, for this farmer man, 
Robert Lavender, was always ready with something worth 
hearing. Among the good preachers of the state and among 
its evangelizing forces, this good man must be counted. He is 
now, as he has been for seven years, at WhVtemberg. Ages 
ago, Dr. W. W. Gist was a Presbyterian, as his wife was a 
Methodist, but, supplying the Marion church, while teaching 
in Coe College in 1887, he fell in love with the church and 
the church with him, and he has been a good Congregationalist 
ever since. His pastorates at Marion and Osage, both happy 
and fruitful, cover a period of thirteen years. Since 1899 
he has held the chair of English in the State Normal College 
in Cedar Falls, honored and beloved in school and church 
wherever known. 

"Professor Noble" has been with us since 1888. None 
of the pastors of Charles City has a warmer or larger place in 
the hearts of the people. Iowa College took him from them 
in 1894. Once upon a time, W. J. Suckow was a little boy 
running about the streets of Garner; then a German Metho- 
dist preacher; later an English Methodist preacher. The 
freer atmosphere of Congregationalism attracted him, and, 
since 1889 he has been with us, one of the brainiest, and most 
eloquent preachers in the state. Brother Tuttle too, came to 
us in 1889 and is, we believe, here to stay, to give his whole 
life to Iowa as he has given his whole heart. 

In this decade we lost to other states a number of our strong 
men. Dr. James G. Merrill in his eleven years' pastorate 
in the Davenport Edwards church making all things new and 
strong, building a fine house of worship, and securing a net 
increase of one hundred and forty to the membership, and 
serving the whole state in various ways, left us for St. Louis 
in 1882. Horace B. Woodworth, for a dozen years pastor 
at Charles City and Decorah, and building up both churches 



MATURITY, 1880-1889 243 

in "strength and beauty," also left in 1882 for his work in 
the University of North Dakota. He was still connected 
with the school at the time of his death, December 21, 1896. 
Thomas Grassie, of Keokuk, coming into leadership in South- 
eastern Iowa and in the state, was taken from us in 1884 to 
the great task and office of Home Missionary Superintendent 
in Wisconsin, in which work he continued up to the time of 
his death, April 28, 1898. In 1884 Dr. Julian M. Sturtevant 
was called from us to a Cleveland pastorate. There was a 
huge "aching void" for a long time after he left us. He was 
everybody's preacher, and everybody's friend. He belonged 
to everybody, especially the boys of his parish. He helped 
us launch the Iowa Congregational Home Missionary Society 
and Congregational Iowa. He was in every way a "great, 
big man." "Now we sigh for the days that never will come 
back," and we once more send him our love and greetings 
in his home at Raven wood, Chicago. Dr. W. A. Waterman 
left us in 1886. He gave us eleven of the best years of his 
life. Among his monuments in Iowa are the stately edifice, 
fine organ, and parsonage at Marion. He too helped us in 
the experiment of self-support. Greetings to him in the even- 
ing of his life in his quiet home at Elgin! 

The list of the lost we could not afford to lose in this decade 
is much longer than this, but this is long enough. 

In this decade we gave at least one of our pastors to the 
foreign work. George E. White was born on foreign mission- 
ary ground, but grew up in an Iowa parsonage and graduated 
from Iowa College. His ministerial career in Iowa was brief. 
He was three years only at Waverly, and then passed on to the 
service of the American Board. Today as president of Ana- 
tolia College in Turkey, he takes a foremost place among 
our foreign missionaries of the statesman type whose work 
is both broad and deep. 

Here we bid final farewell to three of our old patriarchs, 
Gaylord, Emerson and Asa Turner. 



244 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

"How beautiful it is for man to die 
Upon the walls of Zion! To be called 
Like a watch-worn and weary sentinel, 
To put his armor off, and rest in Heaven!" 

The dates bounding the life of Reuben Gaylord are April 
20, 1812, and January 10, 1880; his fields of labor: Danville, 
Iowa, seventeen years; Omaha, Nebraska, nine years; Home 
Missionary Superintendent for Nebraska and Western Iowa, 
six years ; General Missionary and pastor of missionary churches 
ten years more; then the end at Fontanelle. An oft-repeated 
sentiment of his was, " When the Master comes for me, I hope 
he will find me at work and with the harness on." The first 
Sunday of the year he preached three times, making a trip 
of twelve miles to attend the second service. Monday and 
Tuesday he conducted meetings of the "Week of Prayer," 
an expression of his at the last meeting being: "The theme 
grows in grandeur and importance as we progress." The 
next morning he was stricken with paralysis and within thirty- 
six hours closed his great life of labor, sacrifice and achievement. 

Father Emerson began with us in 1841 ; he passed on Novem- 
ber 10, 1883. He had a roving commission. He was sent 
to the "lost sheep of the house of Israel." "I have always 
been an itinerant minister," he said, "preaching statedly 
at from four to six or ten different places. This I deem one 
of the best features of my work. This itinerant work has 
enabled me to lead in the formation of not less than twenty- 
five of the Congregational churches of Iowa and the adjacent 
parts of Illinois." We need not here repeat the story of his 
life of toil and sacrifice. He illustrates the elasticity of Con- 
gregationalism for he was a Baptist in sentiment, and to some 
extent in practice, to the end of his days. He was a typical 
Congregationalist in that he was utterly undenominational. 
There could hardly be a better illustration of great achieve- 
ments in spite of prohibitive handicaps. What suggestion 
of privations and disinterested benevolence this last report 



MATURITY, 1880-1889 245 

to the Home Missionary Society! "The $25.00 due last 
quarter came to hand two days since, and was a great help 
in starting our children on their course of study for the year. 
My chief interest in life must now center in their education. 
If I can help them forward, I may still be of some service in 
the world." To be of some service in the world was his 
highest ambition. Here are some of the footprints of his 
pilgrimage: Davenport 1840-1841, Sabula 1841-1843, De Witt 
and vicinity 1843-1846, Sabula, Copper Creek, etc., 1846-1855, 
Agent A. M. A., 1855-1860, Buckingham 1860-1861, Elk 
River, etc., 1861-1866, Charlotte 1867, etc., up to 1882. 

In speaking a last word in memory of Father Emerson, 
Brother Adams said: "His life was Pauline, with but one work 
to do, and he separated to it; to preach the gospel; to preach 
it to the destitute, seeking out neighborhoods where others 
did not or would not go; to preach, not for a denomination, 
but for the Kingdom; to preach, to preach the word, this 
was the one thing which in spirit he was pressed to do. His 
heart was full of the gospel and it must out. This made him 
eloquent. Eastern brethren listened to him with astonish- 
ment, and could only say as they caught their breath, 'Well, 
that man ought to go to Andover and teach the students how 
to preach.' " 

Father Turner began at Denmark in 1838 and closed in 
1868. The next year he moved to Oskaloosa which was his 
home for the last seventeen years of his life. The "pulling 
up of his roots" at Denmark was a trying experience. "I 
don't know what to do with myself," he said. "To preach 
and to prepare for it was my delight — my daily food." The 
Denmark people wished to retain him as pastor emeritus 
but he said, "You can't afford it," and he thought it best for 
the church to take himself out of the way. He spent two 
winters in California and enjoyed the climate for a season, 
but Iowa was home and good enough for him. "Iowa is a 
good soil," he said, "to raise up inhabitants for the celestial 



246 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

city." He " dreaded the thought of dying anywhere but in 
Iowa," and was " anxious to lay his bones there." As the 
old Denmark parishioners were dropping away he said, "I 
must hurry up or all my friends will get to heaven before me." 
A paralytic stroke came in 1878. A little after this event 
he said one day to Doctor Magoun, "I can t-t-tell you 
w-w-what the p-p-palsy is. It is j-j-just 1-1-laziness struck 
in." Seven years of invalidism and increasing helplessness, 
and then the end, December 13, 1885. 

So passed into the heavens our Asa Turner, our first pastor; 
first in time, first in influence and first in the hearts of the 
people; unique in position and character; gentle, inflexible; 
yielding, uncompiomising; humble — "Nobody's Nothing — " 
Denmark "not small enough" for him, yet standing fast to 
his opinions and convictions; simple-hearted as a child, yet 
hard-headed and clear-eyed as a man of affairs; serious, 
light-hearted, chock-full of fun and mother-wit; preacher, 
pastor, neighbor, reformer, friend of the slave, enemy to the 
saloon ; ecclesiastical architect, builder of the commonwealth — 
this is Asa Turner. He left his impression on the state as 
no other one of our ministers has been able to do. 

Bennett Roberts took his departure February 6, 1880. We 
find him first in Iowa in 1845, at Kossuth, pastor of a Pres- 
byterian church. In 1848 he became pastor of the Congre- 
gational church at Marion. His longest pastorate was at 
Buckingham, 1865-1871. At Marion he "quarried the stone 
and twice handled every brick for the church building." "At 
Buckingham he drew a large portion of the stone and lumber 
for the church, contributed $200 and superintended the work." 
In these records we have a little glimpse of one of the valuable 
men of our Iowa ministry. 

Nelson Clark of Vermont, Dartmouth and Andover and from 
pastorates in Vermont, Massachusetts and Minnesota, pastor 
for a short time at National and Garnavillo, died at National 
March 16, 1880. 



MATURITY, 1880-1889 247 

Benjamin Monroe was somewhat after the pattern of Father 
Emerson. He too began as a Baptist minister, and he too 
had little denominational zeal: He co-labored with Father 
Emerson, dying at Lost Nation, May 5, 1880, in the seven- 
tieth year of his age. 

Darius E. Jones experienced life in many of its phases. 
He was a manufacturer of carriages and hardware; he was 
chorister in many churches, among them Plymouth, Brooklyn; 
he was Assistant Secretary of the American Home Missionary 
Society, editor of the Congregational Herald, and the Western 
Weekly at Davenport; Iowa Agent of the Bible Society; 
colonization agent of the B. and M. Railroad; business agent 
for Church and Co., publishers; pastor at Columbus City, 
Newton and Wilton, etc. Most of all, he will be remembered 
as the compiler of " Temple Melodies" and "Songs of the 
New Life" and as the composer of "Stockwell" and "Martina" 
this last tune wedded to the hymn beginning: 

"Watching, watching, ever watching! 

O, how long? 
Will the rosy morning 
Never bring its dawning, 

And the bird's sweet song?" 

For years he led the services of song at our Association 
meetings. The presence of Darius E. Jones was always and 
everywhere the signal for "a sing." He died in his home at 
Davenport, August 10, 1881. 

In our narrative we left Ozias Littlefield at Bradford. In 
1865 he organized the church at Troy Mills and later settled 
at Seneca, Kossuth County, where he died, November 23, 
1883, leaving his property to the missionary societies. "He 
loved to do the work of a pioneer preacher and carry the bread 
of life to people in new settlements." 

Our first introduction to Robert Stuart is at Cascade in 
1847. In 1853 he returned to Vermont, but was back in Iowa 
in 1861, pastor of the church at Indian Town, now Montour, 



248 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

soon taking in Green Mountain as a part of his parish. He 
continued in this double field for seven years, then had charge 
of the Green Mountain work only until 1870. Retiring from 
the pastorate, he lived on here, a model parishioner, until his 
death June 27, 1884. The meeting-houses now standing in 
Montour and Green Mountain are monuments of his faithful 
work. 

Avery of Chapin and Hampton, closed his work at Hampton 
in 1872 and preached his last sermon at Chapin in the spring 
of 1876. For the last ten years of his life he was a great suf- 
ferer, but was always cheerful, and, up to the last, interested 
in all the work of the church and of the Kingdom. His release 
came January 23, 1885. 

Frederick H. Magoun, with a brilliant mind and gift of 
song and a consuming zeal, made the most of his short ministry 
at Gilman, Newburg and Storm Lake, loved and admired by 
all who knew him. He died at his father's house in Grinnell, 
April 15, 1885, at the age of thirty-three. 

John Cross was a gentleman of the old school who had come 
down to us from a former generation; his birth was in the 
eighteenth century. He entered the service of the American 
Anti-slavery Society soon after its organization in 1833 and 
was for many years associated with Gerritt Smith and John 
G. Whittier and others of that class. He continued the same 
work in Illinois. He established what is believed to be the 
"first continuous line of underground railroad," in the United 
States. It extended from Quincy to Canada. He was once 
imprisoned at Knoxville, charged with secreting fugitive 
slaves. For sixty years he practiced abstinence from all 
intoxicating drinks, from tea, coffee, snuff, tobacco and from 
all products of slave labor, using only maple sugar and molasses 
and substituting linen for cotton goods. It was largely due 
to his influence that Wheaton and Amity colleges with their 
peculiar "anti" tendencies were established, and his charac- 
teristics gave tone and flavor to the church of College Springs 



MATURITY, 1880-1889 249 

of which he was pastor for many years. His spirit left the 
body with the setting sun, December 1, 1885. 

Alexander Parker enlisted from Oberlin in 1861. He could, 
from an experience of seven months, give the inside view of 
rebel prisons at Richmond, New Orleans and Salisbury. He 
came to Iowa in 1864. We loaned him to California for four 
years, and there, in 1867, he organized the First Church of 
Los Angeles, now numbering about two thousand members. 
He died at Miles December 25, 1885. With a Scotchman's 
burr in his tongue and sand in his hair and face, and the solid 
qualities of his clan, he went about all his work with a measured 
tread, but always at it, he served well and faithfully his day 
and generation and the state to which he gave his love and so 
much of his life. 

Alfred A. Whitmore had been a preacher of the gospel for 
more than forty years. He was resting from his labors in 
his last parish at Anita where he had resided eleven years. 
Sunday morning, August 8, 1886, he was supplying for the 
pastor, preaching from the text: "We know that we have 
passed from death unto life because we love the brethren." 
In the midst of his discourse his hands fell on the open Bible, 
his face bowed over it, and his body sank to the floor, and 
he too had passed from death unto life. 

Spencer R. Wells, one arm shot away at Vicksburg, returning 
from a foreign field with a shattered constitution, attempted 
work at Eagle Grove. Within a few months, October 7, 1886, 
the end came. He gave what he could — and that was much — 
to Christ and his church. 

Stephen L. Herrick was a typical New England preacher, 
albeit his preaching was nearly all done in New York. He came 
to Iowa in 1855, not to preach, but to repair damages which 
his preaching had done — to himself — in the East. However, 
Grinnell was just starting and had no regular pastor, so he 
began to take part with Mr. Grinnell and others in supplying 
the pulpit. "He was twice invited to become pastor of the 



250 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

church and stated supply of the pulpit, others being invited to 
act as his associates, which he did without any formal accept- 
ance of the charge," and without compensation. He died 
at his home in Grinnell, July 20, 1886. 

A young man of great promise, Frank S. June, thirty-three 
years of age, only four years in the ministry, gathering strength 
every day in his new parish at Charles City, was suddenly 
stricken down, March 19, 1888. 

D. N. Bordwell passed through the valley September 24, 
1888, but it was not a valley of shadows to him. "To the 
dear invalid himself," says Mrs. Bordwell, "all has been peace 
and joy unspeakable. His last words at night are: 'Under the 
shadow of His wing/ He seems wrapped in the embrace of 
God's love. I cannot tell you how wonderful are the revela- 
tions of love and beauty to him. At times he appears to me 
as if he had already passed the dark river and had reached 
the other shore." Those who knew him did not wonder that 
his life should go out into the other life in all the glory of 
a gorgeous sunset. He was magnificent in his simplicity, 
naturalness, sympathy, charity, love. He gave the address 
to the people when I was ordained, saying, "When I get too 
old to preach, I want to be a sexton and make everything nice 
and comfortable for the people." 

Albert Manson, after forty years of service, twenty-six 
of these in Iowa, nearly twenty at Quasqueton, died of old 
age peacefully and quietly at Marion, September 24, 1888. 
"He was a man of much native ability, a strong defender of 
the faith and an earnest preacher of the gospel." 

Another old soldier, Orremel W. Cooley, forty years in serv- 
ice, died at Glenwood which was his field of labor and his 
place of retirement in old age, May 6, 1889. "He was a man 
of vigorous intellect and scholarly attainments; a man of kindly 
heart, always delighting in helpful words and deeds." 

William F. Harvey died at his home near Gait in Wright 
County December 1, 1889. He came to Iowa in 1864. He 



MATURITY, 1880-1889 251 

had no theological training but knew by heart the gospel 
story. He labored for six years at Webster City, seven at 
Riceville and Wentworth, then retired to his farm in 1877, 
but gave himself to missionary work at Gait, Clarion, Frye- 
burg, Dows and other places up to the time of his death. 
At Gait, Rowan and Webster City memorial windows testify 
to his good life and works. He never married. He would 
not accept missionary aid. For the most part he had no 
stipulated salary. He was the largest contributor to the 
churches which he served, and nearly all the remainder of 
his substance went to missions. 

Others passing on to their reward during this decade are: 
Allen Northrop, Amasa H. Houghton of Lansing; George A. 
Coleman of Corning; Andrew Bachelder of Bowen's Prairie; 
Charles 0. Parmeter of Cromwell, Kelley and Garden Prairie; 
and W. H. Brocksome of Nora Springs. 

Our long obituary list closes with Jacob Reuth, who died 
at Lansing Ridge, December 11, 1889. He came from Swit- 
zerland in 1869. He served faithfully and well in successive 
pastorates our German churches at Muscatine, Davenport, 
Sherrill's Mound and Lansing Ridge. He gave himself with- 
out reserve to the work of the ministry. His name is still 
fragrant in many households in Iowa. 



Chapter XII 
FROM DAN TO BEERSHEBA, 1890-1899 

We have now reached the '90s. Daniel Lane dreamed 
of this day in 1844 and wrote: "Sometimes I try to wrap 
myself up in the future and, by contemplating what will be, 
take courage to labor for the time being. Now I am sitting 
in some well-furnished church; a large congregation is con- 
vened to listen to reports of the various churches; one num- 
bers two hundred members; others one hundred and forty, 
one hundred, fifty-nine, sixty-six, three hundred, three hun- 
dred and seventeen, etc. Pastors have been settled fifteen, 
twenty and thirty years; revival has succeeded revival, and 
all is indicative of prosperity within the bounds of the Associa- 
tion assembled. Delegates from sister Associations are there. 
Brother Salter — locks whitened with age — addresses the audi- 
ence representing prosperity in North Iowa. Brother Turner, 
leaning upon the top of his staff, gives an account of what 
God has done for his people in Jones County. Brother Hill 
from Clayton, although bald-headed, yet retaining nearly all 
the physical vigor of youth, makes a speech. Brother Alden 
represents Tipton; Brother Robbins, Bloomington; the Ten 
are there and the voice of each is heard. Then, in view of the 
past, we will exclaim: * Bless the Lord, our souls, and all 
that is within us, bless his holy name.' This Association 
adjourns on Friday, October 12, 1890. Shall we live to see 
this? No matter whether we do or not, something of the 
sort will exist in the churches of Iowa, without doubt. If we 
see it not in this world, God grant that we may look down from 
heaven and see it." 

252 



FROM DAN TO BEERSHEBA, 1890-1899 253 

The meeting was not in October, but in May. It was held 
in the Plymouth church, Des Moines. Hutchinson, Spauld- 
ing, Ripley, Hill, and Lane himself just translated, were not 
there, but in the assembly of "those whose names are written 
in heaven." Brother Turner was not there to tell of the work 
of God in Jones County, for he was in retirement in Oswego, 
New York. If he had been there, he would have spoken of 
wider fields than Jones County or even Iowa. Alden was 
not there to represent Tipton, for he was far away, now pastor 
emeritus at Marshfield, Massachusetts. Only four of the 
Band are left, Ephraim Adams, Harvey Adams, Robbins and 
Salter. They are present, and they are heard from, of course, 
for this is the semi-centennial of Congregationalism in Iowa. 
Doctor Salter preached the historical sermon of the occasion. 
Doctor Robbins, still pastor at Bloomington (Muscatine), 
was the moderator, and Doctor Adams was his assistant. 
They had lived to see the day, but a better day than that of 
which the prophet dreamed. The churches destined to sur- 
vive, numbered about two hundred, with a membership of 
twenty-two thousand. And, sure enough, there were the 
churches seen in the vision with their one hundred, two hun- 
dred, and even three hundred members. Davenport had the 
three hundred and seventeen prophesied; Tabor, three hun- 
dred and twenty-eight; Dubuque First, four hundred and 
twenty-eight; while Des Moines Plymouth, way beyond 
the scope of the vision, had four hundred and eighty-two 
members, and Grinnell, then undreamed of, had seven hun- 
dred and twenty. 

In 1890 population had reached the limits of the state in 
every direction. Eastern Iowa was now more than fifty years 
of age. Indian titles were all extinguished years ago. The 
Black Hawk Purchase, the Purchase of 1837, the New Pur- 
chase were names of the past. Railroads had penetrated all 
sections of the state. The Pilgrims, in isolated families or in 
groups, were in all parts of the territory. Our churches 



254 THE PILGRIMS 7 OF IOWA 

though thinly scattered, were here and there in all parts of the 
state. We no longer talked of reaching the Missouri, or the 
Upper Cedar Valley, or the Upper Des Moines, or the Sioux 
Country, for we had in a measure covered the whole field. We 
had churches along all our rivers and railroad lines, and in 
almost every county from Des Moines to Lyon, and from 
Alamakee to Fremont. We had churches at Lansing and 
Tabor, at Keokuk and Rock Rapids, almost five hundred 
miles apart. From this time on there could be no marked 
sectional developments but the increase must be "from Dan 
to Beersheba," throughout the length and breadth of the state, 
by the thickening up of population, the filling in of sections 
passed over in the first rush of settlement, the growth of 
cities, the building of new railroads and perhaps — who can 
tell? — the coming of electric lines, and by the incoming 
of foreign populations, demanding Pilgrim churches of alien 
tongues. 

Of course there were still abundant room and opportunity 
for growth. The unfilled spaces between settlements were 
many; the rural districts were sparsely populated; not one 
half of the soil of Lyon County, for example, was at this time 
under cultivation; our cities were still few and small and the 
whole population was still short of two million. Our churches 
indeed, surpass the dream of the seer, but they were still for 
the most part, small and weak, not one-third of them number- 
ing a hundred members each. From Dan to Beersheba there 
was opportunity for development. 

This was preeminently a Home Missionary decade; the 
time of the most extensive missionary operations in our his- 
tory. In 1880 we raised for home missions $6,383 to which 
the parent society added $4,000, and we had sixty-six men 
in the field. In the year 1889-90, we put into state work 
$16,954, and sent $9,265 to the national society; we had in 
our employ ninety-nine men supplying one hundred and four 
churches and numerous out-stations. The next year we put 



FROM DAN TO BEERSHEBA, 1890-1899 255 

into the Iowa work $19,762, employing a force of one hundred 
and five in a field of one hundred and seventeen churches with 
a score of out-stations. The next year we reached $20,140, 
had one hundred and thirteen missionaries and one hundred 
and thirty-six missionary stations. In the year 1893-94 we 
expended in the state work $21,534, employed one hundred 
and seven missionaries to supply one hundred and sixteen 
churches and more than fifty out-stations, while special meet- 
ings were held by our evangelists in more than twenty self- 
supporting fields. During this year more than one hundred 
and eighty communities received the gospel statedly or occa- 
sionally from our missionaries in six different languages, in all 
sorts of places. 

During the decade we put into the state work $172,894 
and sent to the treasury of the National Society $30,295. We 
did not quite keep up the pace of the early years throughout 
the decade, but on the whole the ten years' record is: a full 
treasury, a full force in the field, and large results. In the 
year 1894 the Secretary reports: "Preachers have been plenty. 
There has been a marked change in this respect. The calls 
for men have had their effect. The seminaries are turning 
out more men than they once did. Ministers of other denom- 
inations are flocking to us 'as a cloud, and as the doves to their 
windows ! ' So many are knocking at our door that we from 
within are beginning to say: 'Go to, now, and presently return, 
bringing your people with you, then we will open unto you 
and give you welcome.' Candidates being numerous, it has 
been comparatively easy to keep the missionary ranks full. 
Vacancies have been few and, for the most part, of short dura- 
tion. Changes have been far less frequent than usual." 

In this decade we made large use of general missionaries, 
pastors-at-large and evangelists and we were glad to give 
place in our ministerial ranks to our women. In the list of 
the missionaries of these years we find such names as: Rev. 
Bertha Bowers, Rev. Bertha Harris, Rev. Abi L. Preston, 



256 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Rev. Abi L. Preston Nutting, Rev. Abbie R. Hinckley, Rev. 
Anna 0. Nichols, Rev. Mary Drake, Rev. Emma K. Henry, 
Rev. Lydia I. James, Miss Elvirda Pugh, Miss Nina Pettigrew, 
etc. And we find such names as these: Jacob Fath, Jacob 
Henn, Frederick Judeisch, John Single, John Strohecker, 
Carl Hess, Philip Schmidt, Carl Wuerrschmidt, Ferdinand 
Sattler, Gottfried Grob, Otto Gerhardt, Emil Warkenstein, 
etc., men of our Teutonic contingent. Here are others, 
claiming to speak the language of heaven: Ivan M. Jones, 
Owen Thomas, J. C. Hughes, Lloyd Williams, D. E. Evans, 
Arthur Davies, R. E. Roberts, etc. Of Scandinavian blood 
and tongue are C. 0. Torgeson, F. 0. Anderson, Hans Peder- 
son, F. C. Olsson, J. 0. Nystrom. And here are Anton 
Paulu, John Rhundus, John Musil, F. T. Bastel, Catherine 
Vavrina, Elizabeth Junck, and others, followers of John Huss, 
all the way from Bohemia to Congregational Iowa. 

From these large operations, there must be corresponding 
results. It was a decade of unusual growth. The new 
churches of the decade, as shown in Chapter XVI, number 
ninety-five. This is beyond what has ever been or is likely 
to be unless sometime the other denominations come flocking 
to our standards and to our fellowship. 

These churches extend from Dan to Beersheba. Two are 
in the southwest, fourteen in the southeast, sixteen in the 
northeast, thirty in the northwest, thirty-one in the central 
part of the state, ten of them within the bounds of the old 
Grinnell Association. 

Among the new churches of the decade are Ankeny, Rev. 
Joseph Steele pastor, which would not accept Home Mission- 
ary aid; Blairsburg, emerging from the Wesleyan denomina- 
tion; Britt Scandinavian, from the Free Mission Church; 
Buckeye, a remnant of the old Ellis church; Cedar Rapids 
Bethany, over in the "Time Check" section of the city; 
Davenport Bethlehem, organized for the Americanizing Ger- 
mans of this German town; Des Moines German and Green- 



FROM DAN TO BEERSHEBA, 1890-1899 257 

wood, where the people of the Boulevard and of the side street 
united in Christian work and worship; Dubuque Summit, a 
People's Church not in name but in fact; Elkader, organized 
by the children of the Germans whose fathers crowded out 
the English settlers who organized the First Church there in 
1855; Knoxville, taking up again the work begun in 1852, 
but discontinued in 1864; Luzerne and Vining, our first Bohe- 
mian churches; Muscatine Pilgrim, now our flourishing Mul- 
ford church bearing the name of the woman who devoted time 
and money without stint to the establishing of the mission 
for the working people and children of South Muscatine; 
Rowan, the ground consecrated by the prayers and labors of 
Father Sands and Brother W. F. Harvey; Sioux City River- 
side, and Bellevista, Congregationalism thus reaching out 
into the suburbs of the city; Steamboat Rock, a donation 
from the Presbyterians; Whiting growing brighter and 
brighter every day, etc. 

This, too, was a decade of revivals and in-gatherings. Our 
evangelists and our general missionaries were in the field, — 
Skeels, Skinner, Packard and Carl Hess. B. Fay Mills, in 
the fullness of his evangelistic power, was here for a time, two 
hundred and fourteen uniting with the Grinnell Church in 
1893, the year of his meetings there. Evangelist M. B. Wil- 
liams was here in 1896-97, and Manchester had one hundred 
and twenty-five accessions, Cedar Falls eighty-two and Water- 
loo seventy-two. Evangelist Hart sough was here helping 
in the in-gathering of ninety-nine at Eldora and large numbers 
in other places. Pastors became evangelists in their own 
parishes and in neighboring fields. Pastor Snowden had an 
accession of ninety-three at Fayette, Pastor Pottle one hundred 
and eight at Onawa, Pastor Jamison one hundred and eighteen 
at Sioux City Mayflower, Pastor Packard one hundred and 
eleven at Ionia and Pastor Beardsley one hundred and seventy- 
one at Salem. 

Perhaps our best illustration of pastoral evangelism was 

18 



258 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

furnished by the Summit Church of Dubuque and its pastor. 
The church was the outgrowth of a mission Sunday school. 
Before the organization Evangelist Skeels conducted a series 
of meetings. When Pastor G. M. Orvis arrived June 6, 1804, 
the church had already had sixteen series of evangelistic serv- 
ices. And now his record begins: " November 21, December 
9, Pastor Orvis conducts meetings; March 24, 1895, evangelist 
Hartsough begins meetings; November 17, December 11, 
special meetings conducted by the pastor assisted by F. E. 
Hopkins; January 30, 1896, Doctor Munhall begins meeting; 
November 15, December 6, the pastor conducts meetings." 
The record further speaks of "two series of meetings in 1897, 
two in 1898, one in 1899," and so on up to the present hour. 
No wonder that in the short space of twenty years more than 
seven hundred have united with this church, its present 
membership being almost four hundred. Other records of 
accessions scattered through the decade are: Creston in one 
year, sixty-eight; Dubuque First, one hundred and eight; 
Osage, seventy; Sioux City First, one hundred and twenty- 
one; Humboldt, ninety-two; Tabor, ninety-five; Whiting, 
sixty-nine; Webster City, fifty-eight; Des Moines Plymouth, 
ninety-six; Farragut, sixty-four; Hawarden, ninety-five*; 
Emmetsburg, ninety-four; Newton, ninety-seven; Glen wood, 
sixty-five; Cherokee, eighty-nine one year, fifty another; 
Primghar, ninety-nine, etc. The total accessions of the 
decade are 38,714 and the net increase in membership is 
13,102. In the preceding decade the net gain was 7,412; 
that of the 70s was 5,118. 

The dedications of this decade were many. They number 
ninety-seven. Congregational Iowa never saw the like before 
and perhaps will never see the like again. The record of 
these dedications is in Chapter XVI. It is a hardship not to 
report each in detail, for a dedication service is always a festive 
occasion even though the people usually are facing a mountain 
of debt which must be removed. 



FROM DAN TO BEERSHEBA, 1890-1899 259 

The festivities began with the Sloan Church February 2, 
1890. This was the second dedication at Sloan within four 
years. The former church still new, was crushed and scattered 
in fragments by a tornado, June 17 of the previous year. Of 
course there was a debt, and of course the debt was wiped out 
at the dedication. Secretary Douglass preached the sermon 
as he had at the previous dedication. Marshalltown came 
next, February 23, President Gates preaching the sermon. 
Next was Larchwood May 27, with Secretary Douglass again 
preacher and finangelist; then Elma, and Primghar, and so 
on to the end of the list. July 13, of this first year of the 
decade, Sioux City First Church bade farewell to the chapel 
which had served it faithfully for twenty years, and entered the 
great structure now in use. Chapin had waited thirty-two 
years for its first house of worship, the schoolhouse at "Old 
Chapin" having served as sanctuary nearly all of this time. 
The dedication at Muscatine, March 5, 1893, was the fourth 
occasion of its kind, and they have had one still later. The 
first house was dedicated in 1845 and served for ten years. 
It was called "the stern- wheel church" because the bell-tower 
was in the rear. The second building was called the "Benja- 
mite Church," because the index finger pointing upward was 
that of the left hand. Why the third was called "Uncle Tom's 
Cabin" is obvious, for the pastor and many of his people were 
notorious abolitionists. The fourth building, a fine structure 
costing $25,000, was built to last a century, but scarce sur- 
vived a decade, melted to the earth by devouring flames. The 
service at Grinnell, October 28, 1894, was a rededication after 
the building of galleries adding three hundred and fifty sittings 
to the eight hundred and fifty of the floor. As a good sample 
of an Iowa dedication hymn, we insert the following, written 
by Dr. E. M. Vittum, and sung on this occasion: 

"Where mountains pierce the arching skies, 
And salt waves dash on rocky strands, 
Our fathers lifted longing eyes, 
And dreamed of homes in prairie lands. 



260 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

With many sighs and many tears, 
They left that country by the sea; 
With many doubts and many fears, 
They knelt and prayed, O God, to thee. 

But thou hast heard their suppliant voice; 
And thou hast blest their prayerful toil; 
Thou bid'st this happy land rejoice 
With sun and shower and fruitful soil. 

Thine is the hope of radiant morn; 
Thine is the fruit which labor gains; 
Thine are the miles of golden corn, 
The cattle on a thousand plains. 

This house is thine; and by thy will 
We hold it for a little span. 
Here may thy truth our bosoms fill 
With love to God and love to man. 

The fruitful field, the shady tree, 
This place of prayer, yon classic hall, 
We dedicate them all to thee, 
God of our fathers, God of all." 

One of the commanding figures of Iowa Congregational- 
ism in this decade was this man Edmund M. Vittum. He 
came to Iowa from Guilford, Connecticut, in 1888. Under 
him, and with him and for him, the people of Cedar Rapids 
built their house of worship. During his pastorate at Grinnell, 
1891-1906, the church had its greatest prosperity, more than 
one thousand uniting with the church during these years, and 
the membership reaching beyond a thousand. His influence 
in the college was second only to that of the President. The 
whole state felt the impulse and uplift of his strong person- 
ality. In the meetings of the General Association, we often 
waited for his word, and that was the conclusion of the whole 
matter. In address he was at times eloquent and brilliant. 
He was always resourceful and we learned to expect the 
unexpected and the unusual when he began to speak. He 
was a man for occasions, and for emergencies and for crises 



FROM DAN TO BEERSHEBA, 1890-1899 261 

requiring nerve and tact. He occupies a unique place in our 
history. We mourned his departure, and we have left the 
gates wide open for his return. 

Semi-centennials and other celebrations were frequent 
during this period. We referred in the opening of this chapter 
to the semi-centennial of the State Association. Doctor 
Salter preached the historical sermon; Superintendent Towle 
spoke of the Sunday school work of fifty years; Doctor Magoun 
of the " Congregational Factor in Reform"; President Brooks 
of "Fifty Years of Education in Iowa"; Father Todd of 
"Early Congregationalism in Southwestern Iowa," and Dr. 
Ephraim Adams of "Fifty Years of Congregational Work in 
Iowa," while Pastor Fox brought the greetings of the "Mother 
Church" at Denmark. During Doctor Adams' address, 
some of the pioneers occupied the platform: John Todd of 
Tabor; Asa Turner, Jr., "a chip of the old block"; Deacon 
Oliver Brooks, at the time in his fifty-first year of service as 
clerk of the Denmark church, the only member of this Associa- 
tion who was also a member of that first meeting of 1840; 
Harvey Adams who disputes with Julius A. Reed the distinc- 
tion of being the oldest Congregational minister in Iowa, born 
on the same day but the hour not recorded; W. L. Coleman, 
pioneer in Jackson, Mitchell and Clay Counties; Doctor 
Salter and wife; "Bishop Sands of Wright and Hancock 
Counties" and Mrs. Julian Phelps who, as a girl, attended the 
Denmark meeting fifty years ago and whose father brought 
a load of the Iowa Band from Burlington to Denmark in 1843. 
The most memorable paper of the celebration, however, was 
Reed's "Memorabilia." It has never been published except 
in our State Minutes. It lies buried in that great Mausoleum 
though now parts of it find another place of burial in this book. 
Mr. Reed was not able to attend the meeting for he was old 
and feeble, and within three months of his death. The paper 
was read by his pastor, Doctor Archibald. 

About thirty churches passed their fiftieth milestone in 



262 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

these years. A few of them observed the anniversary. July 
10, 1892, De Witt celebrated, Doctor Robbins spending the 
day with them and assisting. The Clay celebration, August 
17 and 18, was largely a home-made affair, though Doctor 
Salter was there to tell of the patriarchs of Congregational 
Iowa. Maquoketa had two old pastors present, Salter and 
Millikan, to help in their semi-centennial, December 10, 1894. 

The Ottumwa celebration, February 14, 1896, was more 
elaborate. Loren F. Berry was pastor. Mrs. Spaulding, 
by letter, gave a sketch of the church in its first twenty years, 
the period of her husband's pastorate; Harmon Bross, the 
third pastor, was there to tell of the church in his day; Archi- 
bald and Smalley sent letters of greeting, and Doctor Salter 
was there to sum up the lessons of the half-century. Doctor 
Williamson, for more than thirty years a member of the church, 
gave three reasons why the church developed so slowly in its 
early years: — "1. The conviction and practice of the first 
pastor that none born into the Kingdom under his ministry 
should ever be asked to join his church. 2. The absence of 
denominational literature in the parish. 3. The abolition 
sentiments of the members in a time when abolitionists in 
Southern Iowa, as elsewhere, were cordially disliked, if not 
hated, by the many." 

Among the reminiscent incidents related upon the occasion 
are the following: "Sometimes services went on under the 
light of one tallow candle. Once, the whistle of a steamboat, 
coming up the Des Moines river, emptied the house of all 
hearers except nine persons and a yellow dog. One morning 
the janitor startled the community by ringing the bell long 
before church time. Being taken to task, he said he could 
not see that two or three hours made any difference, and he 
wanted to go a-gunning." 

•Iowa College, too, had come to its fiftieth milestone. The 
Commencement season of 1898 was largely given over to the 
reviewing of the past, though a class of fifty was being gradu- 



FROM DAN TO BEERSHEBA, 1890-1899 263 

ated. It is said that nearly half of the living graduates of 
the College made a pilgrimage to this celebration. President 
Gates, already more than ten years in office preached the 
Baccalaureate sermon. Newell Dwight Hillis, once a student, 
and Albert Shaw, a graduate, gave formal addresses. Among 
the speakers at the various programs of reminiscence were 
Prof. L. F. Parker, James L. Hill, son of a college founder, Rev. 
J. H. Windsor, one of the first graduating class of two, Asa 
Turner, son of Father Turner, E. B. Ripley, son of Erastus 
Ripley who was first professor of the College in Davenport, 
Ex-President Pickard of the State University. Observing all 
and rejoicing in it, were two of the College founders, Doctors 
Adams and Salter. 

Of the other celebrations and anniversaries of the decade 
we may not write for lack of space. To this decade belongs 
the "Kingdom Movement" or "Episode" as some would call 
it. It was probably both, the episode being a part of a great 
forward movement. The episode features were those most 
conspicuous in Iowa. Grinnell was the Iowa headquarters, 
Iowa College the storm center, and the center of that the 
Chair of Applied Christianity, Geo. D. Herron the incumbent. 
The movement as a whole minimized the Church and magnified 
the Kingdom. Some of the leaders criticised the Church, 
its institutions, and its missions unmercifully. They discred- 
ited the old evangelism, and sent some of its shining lights 
out into the outer darkness. The movement practically put 
a stop to evangelistic effort in many quarters, discouraged 
organized Christianity, retarded the progress of the churches, 
turned young men away from the ministry. Some of its seers 
were pseudo-prophets, or perhaps of the order of Baalam, not 
wholly false. Some of its philosophies headed straight toward 
political anarchy, social disintegration and moral decay. 

Nevertheless the movement even as it came to us in Iowa 
was not an unmixed evil. There was much of value in it. 
It was well to emphasize the fact that the Church was not 



264 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

the Kingdom, and that the Kingdom was greater and more im- 
portant than the Church. The attempt to break down the 
"middle wall of partition" between the secular and the sacred 
and to lift the secular up into the sacred, was in the line of 
ethical progress. The call of the Church from excessive "other 
worldliness" to the betterment of this present evil world, 
gave a new sacredness and glory to human life, and set men 
longing and looking anew for the "new heavens and the new 
earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." It turned young 
men away from the ministry of the Church, but it filled them 
with a passion for social service and sent them out into the 
slums and charity work in endless variety. It criticised the 
Church unmercifully and unjustly and without discrimination; 
but the Church undoubtedly has profited somewhat by the 
castigation, and here again is fulfilled the words of Scripture, 
"Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, 
but grievous ; nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable 
fruits of righteousness unto them that are exercised thereby." 
Certain it is that on the whole the Church is now as never 
before striving for the redemption of the whole of every man 
the world around; so that the movement even as we knew it, 
in Iowa, with all its excesses, extravagances, eccentricities 
and its sins, was one of the "all things" working together for 
good. Undoubtedly it must be admitted that the main con- 
tentions of the general movement are now generally accepted. 
For the most part the utterances of "The Kingdom" would 
be mere commonplace today, as indeed many of them were 
then. 

The mortuary list for the decade is a long one. It began 
with Dr. James Hoyt of Keokuk, whose stay in Iowa was but 
brief, but whose great personality still left its impress upon the 
state. Daniel Lane is next; then E. C. Taylor of Percival, 
Julius A. Reed, Mrs. Reed, Charles Gibbs of Cedar Falls, 
J. B. Grinnell, D. R. Lewis of Beacon and Givin, H. Geer once 
of Nevinville, J. W. Peet founder of the church at Fontanelle, 



FROM DAN TO BEERSHEBA, 1890-1899 265 

E. Y. Swift of Denmark, Charles Little of Lewis, Mrs. Salter, 
Mrs. Harvey Adams, Mrs. Reuben Gaylord, Mrs. J. K. 
Nutting, James Alderson, John Todd, Alphaeus Graves, 
Jesse Rogers, James Gilbert, Mrs. Robbins, Joel Bingham, 
Tudor Jones, Deacon Oliver Brooks, H. S. De Forest, Pres- 
ident Magoun, Harvey Adams, Alden B. Robbins, Duncan 
McDermid, Thomas Pell of Sibley, J. T. Cook founder of 
Plymouth Church, Des Moines, Colonel Hebard of Red Oak, 
Honorable Charles Beardsley of Burlington, Mrs. Magoun, 
Mrs. Holbrook, J. M. Chamberlain, Z. M. Ellis of Niles, 
J. R. Upton, Thomas Grassie, Samuel Eveland who did notable 
work at Reinbeck, William Spell, M. F. Piatt, W. F. Rose, 
J. W. Elzer, Ebenezer Alden who died at Marshfield, Massa- 
chusetts, January 4, 1899, E. P. Smith of Wayne, Danville 
and Wilton, C. A. Towle, Albert Houston, A. E. Everest for 
many years state agent of the Bible Society, Father L. T. 
Rowley, E. 0. Bennett of Brighton, Thomas Merrill of Monroe, 
Fairfield and Baxter, Richard Hassell and Otto Gerhardt. 

Of the scores of good brethren and sisters in our churches who 
in this decade passed to their reward, we cannot speak a single 
word nor even enroll their names. Of a few of our ministerial 
household we must speak a little word of farewell. Daniel 
Lane was the first one of the Band to decide for Iowa. To 
Iowa he gave his life; ten years pastor at Keosauqua, five 
years in the college at Davenport, four years at Eddyville, 
six at Belle Plaine, then closed his ministry in the service of 
the college. For four years he lived in Oskaloosa in daily 
fellowship with Father Turner. In 1882 he removed to Free- 
port, Maine, where he died April 3, 1890. One of the Iowa 
saints was this good man, Daniel Lane. "The only perfect 
man I ever knew/' said one of his brother ministers. "I 
always feel like hiding when I see Mr. Lane coming along the 
street," said a saloonist. Brother St. John tells of a rough 
profane drinking man who said, "Father Lane is the best man 
that ever lived." Mr. St. John replied, "I think he is one of 



266 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

the best." This did not satisfy Mr. Lane's admirer. Again 
he said: " Father Lane is the best man that ever lived." 
And then as Mr. St. John did not respond with sufficient enthu- 
siasm, he cried out, "Look here young man, I tell you God 
Almighty never made a better man than Daniel Lane." 

Of the patriarchs, Gaylord was the first to be called, then 
Turner and now Julius A. Reed, August 27, 1890. The story 
of his life work may be found on many pages of this book. We 
will not repeat. Quotations from his writings abound. He 
was closely associated with the Iowa work from 1840 to 1890. 
He filled a large place in the state for fifty years. He contrib- 
uted much to the making of the denomination and the com- 
monwealth. Mrs. Reed survived her husband just one month. 
She died September 27. She was a teacher in Boston and in 
Jacksonville, Illinois, and was in every way a worthy com- 
panion of this royal pioneer missionary. 

To the State Association holding its semi-centennial in 
1890, J. B. Grinnell sent an affectionate farewell, enclosing a 
check for one hundred dollars for home missions, but the next 
day he appeared in the midst of the brethren, for he could not 
be denied the pleasure of seeing their faces once more. But 
this "once more" was final. The last days of weariness and 
pain ended March 31, 1891. Mr. Grinnell was to have had 
a place on the program of the Jubilee meeting. In the letter 
to which reference has been made he tells of things he would 
have been glad to say: "Acknowledging the goodness of the 
Master in driving me forth from my Eastern home, with plans 
which I hoped might be for the elevation of man and the pro- 
motion of the cause of Christ, I would recall that thirty-six 
years ago on this prairie, there was not so far as is known a 
Christian of any denomination to dispute occupancy with 
prowling beasts or coiling reptiles. Great changes! There is 
now a Congregational church here with between seven and 
eight hundred members. From the early temporary shanty, 
we have emerged into an edifice comely, spacious and endur- 



FROM DAN TO BEERSHEBA, 1890-1899 267 

ing. The solitary place is gladdened by the college in its 
prosperity. The soil here was consecrated to temperance, 
education and religion. May this anniversary be the best 
of all the gatherings. Only many tongues could set forth 
the love I bear to you all." And with these benedictions, this 
unique, forceful, busy, useful, democratic, brotherly man went 
out from us. On a cold, raw, April day, we literally carried 
his body to the last resting place, for the roads were too rough 
for hearse or carriages. 

In our Congregational Iowa life, we have had our tragedies. 
Mrs. Harvey Adams died June 23, 1893, at the Independence 
Asylum, and Mrs. Salter, June 12 was killed by a falling tree 
in the Burlington cemetery. She had shared, and in large meas- 
ure made, the fortunes of her husband for forty-seven years. 
"A quiet, serene life was ended at one stroke, a life which from 
the beginning was a charm and blessing." As if prophetic of 
the event to come, she carried with her, on that fatal day, the 
Thanatopsis; and these lines: 

"All warning spared 
For none is needed when hearts are for prompt change prepared." 

And these: 

"The day will dawn when one of us shall harken 
In vain to hear a voice that has grown dumb. 
One of us two must sometime face existence 
Alone with memories that sharpen pain." 

In sharp contrast was the slow decline of Mrs. Robbins. 
Mr. Robbins had found her a teacher at St. Charles, Illinois, 
in 1861. She became at once the mother of his three mother- 
less children, and, in later years, six more were born to them 
though only two of them grew up to maturity. Age added 
grace and charm to her personality. At the meetings of the 
State Association, you would nearly always meet Mrs. Robbins 
with her husband and she would greet you with a smile and 
hearty handclasp. At length came " waning strength, cessa- 



268 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

tion from work" and waiting, not without pain and suffering, 
for the " appointed time," June 22, 1894. 

We must devote at least a paragraph to Deacon Jesse 
Rogers of Alden. He came to Hardin County from New 
York in 1856. At a tavern in Waterloo a guest remarked 
"The Sabbath has not yet crossed the Mississippi." "Oh 
yes, it has," he responded, "for I brought it when I crossed." 
He was one of the foundation stones and pillars of the Alden 
church. He was one of the four delegates who organized the 
Northwestern Association. At the associational gatherings, 
state and local, you were pretty sure to see Deacon Rogers. 
On hearing of his death Dr. Lyman Whiting wrote to Congre- 
gational Iowa concerning his first acquaintance with this man : 

In September, 1867, Rev. Chauncey Taylor called Superintendent 
Guernsey and myself to his installation in Algona. It was also a meet- 
ing of the Association, I think, held in a schoolhouse which was to become 
an "academy." In the meeting I saw a face which held my eye with a 
strange fascination, it so recalled a portrait I had seen. I sought to know 
the man. It was Deacon Rogers. Then I recollected the portrait I had 
often reverently gazed upon years before, in Portsmouth, N. H., in the 
house of Mr. Daniel Rogers, a while my parishioner. He had procured 
it from London — a copy of the martyr John Rogers, his ancestor. There 
in the Algona schoolhouse sat the same head in contour, mode of hair, 
outline of features and visible temperament. 

We do not know that the blood-ties here suggested have 
ever been traced, but can well believe that the same spirit of 
devotion which belonged to the old martyr animated the man 
from Iowa. 

Joel S. Bingham died at Dubuque July 28, 1894. He was 
born at Cornwall, Vermont, October 16, 1815; educated at 
Marietta and Middlebury and had pastorates at Leominster, 
Westfield, and East Boston before coming to Iowa. He began 
at Dubuque in 1870, and in 1882 at Traer, and retired in 1890. 
Of all the great preachers in Dubuque and Iowa, he was one 
of the greatest. He was a thinker and an orator, always fresh 
and glowing with spiritual fervor. 



FROM DAN TO BEERSHEBA, 1890-1899 269 

Dr. Henry S. De Forest, of Yale University, instructor in 
Beloit College, a stalwart Christian, one of God's noblemen, 
fell at his post in the South, January 27, 1896. From the 
Southland came the message: " Alabama joins with Iowa in 
grateful recognition of his worth and in sorrow for his early 
death." 

When President George F. Magoun died at his home in 
Grinnell, January 30, 1896, in the seventy-fifth year of his 
age, throughout the state and throughout the land the cry 
was heard: "How are the mighty fallen!" He was born in 
Bath, Maine, March 29, 1821. Graduating from Bowdoin and 
Andover, his first work in the West was in Platteville Academy 
in Wisconsin. Later he was pastor at Galena, at Davenport 
and at Lyons, but his great work was done in the presidency 
of Iowa College to which he was elected in 1862 though he 
did not take his chair until 1865. No more fitting memorial 
of him can be put upon this page than that which appears in 
the Minutes of 1896: 

Doctor Magoun, eloquent as a preacher, profound as a thinker, eminent 
as an educator, was one of the strong personal forces of our state for many 
years. His loyalty to his conceptions of truth, his bold and convincing 
utterances, his interest in that which affected men socially, politically 
and religiously, drew attention to him early. He was a man to be taken 
account of, so all felt who saw his grand proportions and heard his trumpet 
voice. He was intimately associated with the Congregational fathers of 
Iowa, the founders of Iowa College. It was not strange that they turned 
to one who moved before them like a king, and called him to the place 
which it was long his pride to fill, the presidency of the young and strug- 
gling school. That was his real life-work. It commanded him. His 
heart went into it. He gave the name of the college publicity. He drew 
to it the respectful and kindly thought of many friends who opened their 
hands to it with gifts. In the time of the great disaster his name and 
influence meant much for its rebuilding. His literary activity was unre- 
mitting so long as his health allowed, and even after it was seriously broken. 
He had the genius of work. His most valuable contribution to the churches 
of Iowa is his "Life and Times of Asa Turner." It is a monument of 
patient research, showing better than anything else the work of those 
pioneers who planted our churches in Iowa. He held the pen of a ready 



270 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

writer. It was natural for him to speak his thought fully. He was quick 
to defend his position, if assailed. He was not easily intimidated; the 
polemic spirit was no stranger to him. He loved the missionary work 
and the workers of our churches. He was a corporate member of the 
American Board. He was before the war an earnest opponent of slavery. 
The cause of temperance always enlisted his hearty sympathy. He did 
a good work and will live in the respectful memory of the Christian people 
of Iowa as well as in the respect, honor and affection of many who, as 
students, learned of him to think and to believe. 

This same year, 1896, the Band was again broken through 
the death of two of its members, Harvey Adams, September 
23, and Doctor Robbins, December 27. 

The comings and goings of Father Harvey Adams have been 
noted on many a page of this book. His active ministry 
closed at Bo wen's Prairie in 1882. After that his home was 
in New Hampton, near one of his daughters. The last four- 
teen years of his life he spent in his garden and with his books, 
but was rarely absent from meetings of the Association and 
the Commencements of the college of which he was a trustee 
from its beginning to his end. He was constantly reading the 
Bible in course. One year he read it through fourteen times, 
another year, sixteen times. As to his funeral he said: "I 
have no directions to give, but there are one or two hymns 
which I would like to have sung. The hymn ' Just as I am/ 
I would like to have them sing that, and sing it all." "So, 
when death came," says Brother Ephraim Adams, "we buried 
him and it did not seem like death. It was rather the setting 
of the sun in glory, for a more glorious rising, or like a shock of 
corn, fully ripe, being garnered in." So passed out of our 
sight this man of prayer, this scholarly, logical, biblical 
preacher, this faithful minister of the Word, this humble 
Christian believer. 

The name of Alden B. Robbins has appeared again and 
again in the pages of this history. He had but one pastorate. 
He began in Muscatine in November, 1843; he resigned in 
1891, and was pastor emeritus to the time of his death. He, 



FROM DAN TO BEERSHEBA, 1890-1899 271 

too, was a trustee of Iowa College from its founding until 
he was taken. He was for many years one of the directors of 
Chicago Theological Seminary, and for more than thirty years, 
a corporate member of the American Board. " He was a man 
of positive character and strong convictions. He hated 
slavery, polygamy, the liquor traffic and vice and sin of all 
kinds." He was outspoken in his condemnation of evil, yet 
so gentle and manly that he held the respect and admiration 
of those who differed from him. When he was gone from them 
the people's tribute was voiced in such words as these: "Mus- 
catine mourns the death of one of her purest, noblest and best 
citizens. For more than fifty years he was in a preeminent 
way, a parish priest, a preacher for the entire community. 
While a Congregationalist, his sphere of usefulness knew no 
denominational bounds. All recognized him as in some sense 
their pastor." The closing utterance at his funeral was, 
"Alden B. Robbins, minister of Christ, patriot and citizen, 
hail and farewell ! " 

Of the many notable women of our fellowship, Mrs. Eliza- 
beth Earle Magoun holds a foremost place. She was born in 
Brunswick, Maine, August 28, 1833. Graduating from Mt. 
Holyoke, she later became a teacher there. She married 
Doctor Magoun in 1870, and presided as Lady Principal of the 
college for two years. From 1876 to 1895 she was president 
of the Iowa Branch of the Woman's Board of Missions for the 
Interior. Cultured, refined, a brilliant conversationalist, a 
marvelous Bible-class teacher, a gifted speaker, glowing with 
enthusiasm, cordial in her social relations, zealous in mission- 
ary endeavor, she was for many years a woman of commanding 
influence in our denominational life. After severe and pro- 
longed suffering she "fell on sleep" January 7, 1896. 

Joshua M. Chamberlain gave to Iowa Congregationalism 
twoscore years of service. His pastoral work in Dubuque, 
Des Moines and Eddyville covered a period of about ten years. 
He was for a time in Christian Commission work in the South 



272 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

and, for a time, served the American Missionary Association 
as state agent. His great service in Iowa was in behalf of 
Iowa College. For thirty-six years he was a trustee, for nearly 
twenty years treasurer and financial agent, for six years 
librarian. His donations to the college ran up into the thou- 
sands. "The Cottage" — so on to be apart of a quadrangle of 
women's dormitories — stands on the beautiful grounds where 
once stood the Chamberlain home, these grounds, a part of 
his gift to the college. He was for years connected with the 
Grinnell Herald, then with the Grinnell Independent. He 
made contributions to various periodicals. His pen was 
vigorous and trenchant. He always wrote to secure moral 
effect. "He never reenforced his arguments by pleasantries 
or gave them sting by ridicule. His style was that of a man 
solemnly in earnest and so possessed with his idea that he 
would not be turned aside. He went at his point directly 
and with words fitly chosen." Brother Chamberlain died 
November 11, 1897. 

Superintendent Charles A. Towle gave us seventeen years 
of solid service, beginning in 1882; for four years at Monti- 
cello and for thirteen years in the Sunday school work. While 
pushing the interests of the Sunday school with all diligence 
and faithfulness, he also took into his solicitude and care all 
the interests of all the churches. Everywhere he was wel- 
comed as a "holy man of God," an "Israelite indeed in whom 
there was no guile." He was forceful in address because he 
was forceful in character and strong in his convictions. He 
was the bearer of many burdens because the sacrificial spirit 
of the Master was in his heart. He was one of the faithful 
servants whom the Lord finds watching and ready at his 
coming. 



Chapter XIII 
SCATTERING ABROAD, 1900-1910 

Of the Congregational Iowa of the zero decade it might be 
said as of the good man of the Psalms, "He hath dispersed, 
he hath given to the needy." 

We are now at the beginning of the Twentieth Century. 
Doctor Salter voices the prayer of the Pilgrims of Iowa in 
his " Twentieth Century Hymn": 

"With happy hearts and loud acclaim, 
We bless, O Lord, thy mighty name 
That now, in mercy, we behold 
Another century unfold. 

Come, Lord, throughout the century long, 
Oh, come to overthrow all wrong ; 
Save us from pride, from lust of power, 
From greed that would thy land devour. 

Defend with thy almighty hand 
Justice and freedom in our land; 
And may the islands of the sea 
Resound the anthems of the free. 

May knowledge grow from more to more, 
Salvation spread from shore to shore, 
And, through the hundred years to come, 
On earth, be peace, Thy will be done. 

Oh, may thy new creation rise 
On every land beneath the skies, 
And may the Twentieth Century's age 
Be best of all in History's page." 

The beginnings of the century for organized Christianity 
in Congregational Iowa are not reassuring. At the very first 
19 273 



274 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

meeting of Association in the new century, we discussed the 
topic: "The decline of Church Progress." The Home Mis- 
sionary Secretary reported: 

This is not a record of extensive operations or of large achievements. 
Our receipts were only $12,769. Last year they were $15,140. Four 
years ago they were $18,000 and six years ago, $21,280. Why this falling 
off? Is it because of lack of confidence in the administration? Is it an 
indication of a feeling that the work is not very important or very much 
needed? Is it another token of a general religious decline? Or is it some- 
thing less radical — a natural dropping down from the heroic efforts made in 
the earlier days of self-support, when this work crowded out other interests 
or crowded them into a corner? Are the figures exceptionally small because 
of exceptional conditions, the churches all building, or about to build, or 
recuperating after building? So, too, the number of churches organized 
was only five; last year the number was seven; the year before nine; and 
in 1894 sixteen. It must be recorded too, that there were not many 
revivals in our Home Missionary churches and not many accessions and 
only a small increase in membership during the year. The report must be 
modest and moderate. But I will not be a pessimist. I will not dwell 
on the gloomy side of things. If there is sunshine anywhere, I will be in it; 
and sunshine there is everywhere. 

The account of the whole decade must be modest and 
moderate. The new churches which are recorded in Chapter 
XVI, are only twenty-five as against ninety-five in the pre- 
vious decade, and, according to our Minutes, there is an actual 
net loss of fourteen churches. The net increase in member- 
ship is less than a thousand as compared with over thirteen 
thousand in the previous decade. In some respects at least, 
it is a period of stagnation if not decadence. 

Considering the occasions of this decline, the most obvious 
is the decrease of population, and the occasion of this is the 
craze for cheap lands. In the last ten years, Iowa has lost 
many thousands of her population to other states and to 
Canada, the actual decrease in population being about eight 
thousand. Hood River, Oregon, has an Iowa Association of 
six hundred members. It is reported that at the last Iowa 
picnic in Los Angeles thirty-five thousand Iowans were present, 



SCATTERING ABROAD, 1900-1910 275 

and that at a picnic in North Dakota all but three were from 
Iowa; at another every one was from the Hawkey e state; 
"not a hoof was left behind." The migration has taken from 
us thousands of our members and many of our ministers, 
playing havoc with scores of our weaker churches and affect- 
ing both the large and the small. We read in 1904 of an 
"Iowa Band of Oklahoma" composed of 0. W. Rogers, I. M. 
McSkimming, J. W. Turner, S. H. Seccombe, M. C. Haecker, 
O. M. Humphrey and others, sixteen in all; and how they 
banqueted and toasted: "Iowa Mush and Milk," "My Flight 
from Iowa," "An Iowa Prison Experience," "The Iowa 
Band," etc. 

In the September issue of "Congregational Iowa" for 1904, 
Doctor Frisbie tells of one of Iowa's losses to the regions 
beyond: "We are accustomed to forays from the East. Good 
men come here and add a cubit to their stature — reach up 
to the level where they are observed — and the East begins to 
look them up, opens a door to them and entices them away. 
We are glad to send help to the East, for it has bestowed a 
great deal of pity on us. But here is a new inroad. We are 
assailed from the West, most unexpectedly, and, not a local 
church now, but a whole state calls Brother Packard from us. 
Tennyson makes his Northern Farmer ask: 'Does God A'moity 
know wot He's a-doin', a-takin' o' mea?' So we wonder if 
Nebraska knows what she's a-doin', a-takin' o' Brother 
Packard away. He is the father confessor of the north coun- 
try in which he lives. Nashua, Ionia, Woden, Riceville and 
Buffalo Center with many other places, have felt his strong, 
manly help; his kind, sagacious counsel. He has a knack at 
usefulness and somehow keeps the knack busy. We shall miss 
Brother Packard. He has been with us a good many years — 
laborious, fruitful years. The Nebraska Superintendent of 
Home Missions need not worry himself to find work for Brother 
Packard. He may be counted on to find work for himself." 
There are many records of this sort in this decade. 



276 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

No doubt there are other reasons for the decline: the dis- 
crediting of organized Christianity; the cry "Too many 
churches"; theological views unfavorable to evangelism; criti- 
cisms of the "old evangelism" and much talk about the 
"new" which does not yet appear, and — admirable occasion 
for loss at home! — a rising enthusiasm for foreign missions, 
absorbing the attention and gifts of sisterhoods and brother- 
hoods in this great, world-wide work. 

And yet there are results, and there is progress. Early in 
the decade we dismissed all of our home missionary evangelists, 
and all our general missionaries excepting Dr. D. P. Breed; 
but "Billy" Sunday is here, with Milford Lyon, and Oscar 
Lowery, and other independent evangelists, and our evange- 
listic pastors are still at work. Little Adelphi reports in one 
year the addition of sixty; little Union seventy-one; little 
Exira one hundred; little Humeston, one hundred and fourteen; 
Tabor, ninety-two; Marshalltown, ninety-three; Reinbeck, 
eighty; Dubuque First, one hundred and four; Des Moines 
Plymouth, one hundred and eleven; Grinnell, one hundred and 
thirty-eight; Spencer, one hundred and twenty-five, and 
Mason City, one hundred and fifty-four. The accessions of 
the decade were 31,189, falling only 7,525 below the record of 
the decade previous. These figures indicate that our small 
gain in membership is not proof positive of great decline in 
evangelistic activity and fervor. The best evangelistic year 
of the decade was 1909. Our loss of members in the ten years 
was more than thirty thousand. This scattering abroad of 
our membership is the occasion of our small gains. 

The dedications of the decade number sixty-eight. We 
have no better bunch of buildings than these. First comes 
Cresco, dedicated January 23, 1900, President Gates and 
Secretary Douglass, assisting; the cost $15,000. Hinsdale 
dedicated February 4, and Cherokee, February 25. The cost 
of the Cherokee building is $18,000. President Blanchard of 
Wheaton was preacher for the occasion; he did not raise the 



SCATTERING ABROAD, 1900-1910 277 

debt. At Ames, March 18, Brother Moulton preached the 
dedication sermon. We left no incubus of debt behind us 
here. The Ames building is a beautiful one, in the English 
Gothic style, artistic, simple, solid, unique in its inside finish 
of pressed brick and art tapestry. If possible it looks better 
today than on the day of dedication. When the corner-stone 
was laid, Professor Wynn, of the State College read the follow- 
ing poem based on the recently discovered "Logia" — the 
same word of the Lord which suggested Henry Van Dyke's 
"Toiling of Felix": 

Raise the stone and thou shalt find me, 
Cleave the wood and I am there.' 
O, my Lord, thy love shall bind me, 
Find and bind me everywhere. 

What were I if left without Thee 
Cleaving wood or raising stone, 
While Thy heavens around Thee, shout Thee 
King upon Thy lonely throne? 

What my eyes may see in seeing, 
What my ears in hearing hear, 
Deep within my inmost being, 
There Thy form and face appear. 

With the toilers that attend Thee, 
Myriads in the sun and soil, 
Nought there is that may offend thee 
But the will that will not toil. 

Or in selfish isolation 
Fevered with the pulse of pain, 
Finds not Thee for consolation, 
Grinding in the mills of gain. 

One he is who will not own Thee 
Cleaving wood or raising stone. 
He would raise the stone to stone Thee, 
Cleave the wood to hang Thee on. 

0, my Lord, my lips confess Thee 
From a heaving heart of care. 
May Thy loving hands caress me, 
Find and bless me everywhere." 



278 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

So the record runs on through the year and the years; dedi- 
cations at Toledo, Manchester, Baxter, a Sunday school annex 
to Davenport Edwards, Alden, Burlington, Clarion, Fontan- 
elle, Monticello, Harlan, Corning, etc. 

The dedication at Minden, August 1$, 1901, was a unique 
affair. We marched from the pastor's house to the church 
on the hill. With religious ceremonies we " opened the doors" 
and marched down the aisles. The German preachers spoke 
from the high pulpit, surmounted by a sounding board upon 
the wall; the English preaching was done from the reading- 
desk in front of the "reredos" back of which is the choir. We 
had the baptism of infants with god-fathers and god-mothers 
and the sign of the cross upon the forehead. We had the 
communion, the communicants coming in groups, first the 
pastors, then the choir, then the men in two companies, then 
the women, the officiating minister placing the wafer on our 
tongues and holding the chalice to our lips. This is Congre- 
gationalism adapting itself to circumstances! 

The Feast of Dedication of the third sanctuary at Osage 
continued four days. This building expands and contracts 
like a telescope, the full seating capacity being one thousand 
two hundred, the cost thirty-two thousand dollars. For a 
town of three thousand this house of worship has no duplicate 
within our borders. Charles City, a town of seven thousand, 
dedicated March 12, 1911, a fine building costing thirty-four 
thousand dollars. 

The Congregational Cathedral of Iowa is the sanctuary of 
Plymouth Church, Des Moines. It cost one hundred and 
fifteen thousand dollars, and will seat two thousand people. 
F. J. Van Horn was pastor at the beginning and the end of 
the enterprise. The dedication was June 5, 1902, in connec- 
tion with the meeting of the State Association. This noble 
structure, in picture, speaks for itself. 

The cornerstone of the house of worship for our colored 
Congregational people of Des Moines was laid September 3, 



SCATTERING ABROAD, 1900-1910 279 

1905, Governor Cummins and Judge McHenry assisting in 
the ceremonies. The building grew slowly, a little at a time, 
in the midst of great difficulties. Pastor Porter, a trained 
mechanic before he was a minister, laid the first and last 
brick, and sometimes worked alone. The house was not 
ready for dedication until December 20, 1908; the last bills 
were not paid until the last of the year 1910, the Church 
Building Society assisting generously. Other dedications of 
the decade are recorded in Chapter XVI. 

In this decade of decline, interest and activity in missions 
as a whole are unabated. While we do less for Iowa home 
missions, we do more for the work beyond. We send our men 
to the West by the dozens, our members and money by the 
tens of thousands. One feels perfectly at home in any western 
association or conference, so many Iowa men are there. If 
you speak in almost any church on the Coast from San Diego 
to Bellingham, or anywhere in the great Northwest, a score 
or more of Iowa people will come up to shake your hand and, 
perhaps, remind you that they "have heard that same address 
before." 

Early in the decade it was said: "The churches are showing 
indications of a coming access of missionary zeal not heretofore 
possessed. The rise of this spirit is intuitively felt rather than 
clearly defined. It is strong and quiet like the incoming tide." 
This forecast has been verified in the great missionary move- 
ments of these latter years, the great Diamond Jubliee at 
Boston, the Laymen's Movement for Foreign Missions and 
the Brotherhood Movement, naturally, inevitably and almost 
unconsciously sliding into misisonary activity. In 1902 we 
began to give ten per cent, of our home missionary receipts to 
the national society for work in the regions beyond, and in 1906 
we raised the amount to twenty per cent., the whole amount 
thus expended in the decade being $55,000. 

Through our representatives we have had a share in numer- 
ous missionary campaigns; in New England; on "the Coast"; 



280 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

in the great Northwest; in the Interior; among the theological 
seminaries enlisting men for the work; and we had a large 
share in the great " joint missionary campaign" by which we 
set all our societies free from the bondage of debt and sent 
them out to larger service. We gave our Associate Secretary 
for six months to this enterprise, and put $7,000 into it. In 
other fields of missionary work there has been an increase of 
interest and activity. Contributions to the American Mis- 
sionary Association exceeded those of the previous decade by 
$11,000; the increase for Foreign missions was $40,000; for 
all benevolences $187,000. At the Association meeting of 
1900, where we were mourning " the decline of church progress," 
we pledged ourselves to the " Forward Movement" in foreign 
missionary work, and we have had a share in all the great 
movements, denominational and inter-denominational, for 
world-wide missions. 

Two of the great historic meetings of our denomination 
have been held in Iowa, both with the Des Moines Plymouth 
church; the American Board meeting with its " great theologi- 
cal debate" introducing the "Andover Controversy" in 1886, 
and of the National Council in October, 1904. It was an " Iowa 
idea" that all the missionary societies should meet with the 
Council. As a beginning, the State Association sent the 
Home Missionary Secretary East to capture if possible, the 
National Home Missionary Society for the Council. Of the 
success of this effort and its significance, the Boston Transcript 
spoke as follows: "Rev. T. O. Douglass, Secretary of the Iowa 
State Home Missionary Society, came out of the West and per- 
formed, it is said, a marked service to Congregationalists. For 
three or four years the benevolent societies of this denomina- 
tion have been expressing themselves, through their execu- 
tives, in favor of meetings at the same time and place. But 
somehow calls for the meetings were never issued. Iowa pre- 
sented to the recent meeting of the Home Missionary Society, 
and on behalf of Plymouth church, Des Moines, an invitation 



SCATTERING ABROAD, 1900-1910 281 

to meet in the Iowa state capital, in connection with the Con- 
gregational National Council. The invitation was accepted 
with enthusiasm, and it is now said the Iowa executive will 
extend the same invitation to the American Missionary Asso- 
ciation and to the American Board, at their meetings this fall. 
The former has for years been favoring common meetings and 
can hardly decline the invitation. This meeting will carry with 
it at least two of the smaller benevolent societies, possibly 
three, and if the American Missionary Association acquiesces, 
as seems likely, the discussion of years will have borne fruit 
and Congregationalists will at last have brought their home 
missionary efforts together. Although the matter may seem 
small, this one of the societies meeting together, means almost 
as much toward unity as the coming together of some of the 
separated Protestant bodies." 

The cooperation of all the benevolent societies was finally 
secured except in the case of the American Board which com- 
promised by arranging its annual meeting at Grinnell imme- 
diately preceding the meeting of the Council in Des Moines, 
so that it was practically one great meeting with a railway 
journey of fifty-five miles for an interlude. This second meet- 
ing of the Board in Iowa was marked by a broadening of its 
internal organization, a step toward true Congregationalism in 
the provision that local Associations might nominate members 
of the Board. 

As to the Council, the Outlook said: "It was in every way 
the most remarkable meeting which has been held in the 
history of American Congregationalism. It seemed to mark 
the beginning of a new era of progress for the denomination. 
The attendance was larger than ever before; the addresses 
as a whole were more notable, the spiritual tone more pro- 
nounced, and the consciousness of a noble mission more 
evident." 

Four dominant notes were struck which it was hoped con- 
tained a prophecy for the immediate future: a movement 



282 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

toward church unity in the shape of "Tri-union" with the 
United Brethren and Methodist Protestants here reached its 
acme. This was not consummated, owing to various practi- 
cal obstacles which later arose, but the possibility of such 
amalgamations came close home to our consciousness and the 
results are yet to be. A movement was initiated looking to 
a more practical and business-like dealing with our benevolent 
organizations. Its results have been seen in some of the 
changes in organization and personnel within the societies 
and in the missionary "movements" and " campaigns" which 
have followed one another since 1904. Since the Council of 
1910 we may now say, "Now is our salvation nearer than 
when we first believed.' ' An evangelistic movement, which 
was to be a "new evangelism" was put under way, W. J. 
Dawson of London being a moving spirit and its chosen leader. 
It cannot be claimed that the movement itself was a great suc- 
cess, but here too, we may hope, was an earnest of what shall 
come to its fullness later. Finally a thorough overhauling of 
our denominational polity gained impetus through the debate 
upon the duties of a moderator. This movement, turned in 
the direction of the "tightening up" of organization in our 
various state and local bodies, is going merrily on, with what 
results the future alone can tell. It looks now as if we would 
scarcely know ourselves a decade hence. The whole meeting 
was one of unusual inspiration, and this coming of the Council 
and of the Societies into the Middle West, with its progressive, 
democratic spirit was a boon to the denomination. Certainly 
it was an inspiration to us, appreciated to the full by hundreds 
of ministers and laymen who had never before enjoyed such a 
privilege, and it left a most wholesome effect upon our work. 
The Board meeting of 1886 with its great theological contro- 
versy was not a blessing to Iowa. Some of us at the time 
"groaned in spirit" and said, "Oh, why did they bring this 
thing out here to ' disturb and distress our churches!'" 
There is no space for semi-centennial reports, enjoyable as 



SCATTERING ABROAD, 1900-1910 283 

these occasions are. More than sixty churches pass the half- 
century mark within this decade. 

An event of especial interest, particularly to the author of 
these pages, was the twenty-fifth anniversary of home mis- 
sionary self-support in Iowa, at which time the old Secretary 
retired from office giving place to Dr. P. Adelstein Johnson, 
whose efficient hand is now at the helm. Secretary Douglass's 
last report contains the following reminiscences: 

Some of the accomplishments of the twenty-five years, in which the 
Society has had a hand, are as follows: One hundred and thirty-seven 
churches organized; one hundred and eighteen fostered into self-support; 
two hundred and twenty-two houses of worship completed and dedicated; 
78,958 added to the membership of the churches; 48,830 of these on con- 
fessions of faith; the membership increased from 15,787 to 36,483; $1,176,- 
225 raised for missions, mostly for missions outside of Iowa. We have 
nothing to boast of in these accomplishments, but we need not be greatly 
ashamed of the record; and over it we may humbly rejoice, and thank 
God, and take courage. 

Of the incidents of the service there is not time to speak at length. Of 
course there were some hardships; night travel; hours of waiting at Abbott 
Crossing, and other crossings, the soft side of a board often a luxury; cold 
rides; cold beds, and beds preoccupied; and other little discomforts of this 
sort. "The breaking of the home ties," and the giving up of the study, 
were more serious hardships; the greatest burden of all, the care of all the 
churches. 

But the burden of the service has not fallen on that great hulk of a man 
called the Secretary. The burden has rested on the shoulders and heart 
of the little woman left with the care of the home and the six babies, and 
the seventh adopted. 

But we have had our compensations: Residence in Grinnell; close 
association with Iowa College; the stimulus of great interests and enter- 
prises keeping the head full and the heart full; association with "the 
brightest and best of the sons of the morning" in Iowa and in the whole 
country; kindness, sympathy, hospitality and good cheer greeting us on 
every side. We have had our compensations and we are glad and thank- 
ful. Unless memory plays us false we will have almost nothing but pleas- 
ant things to think of in connection with the service. 

The committee meetings were serious and strenuous, and sometimes 
oppressive, but they were bright spots, too; seasons of fellowship. My, 
how sometimes things would crack and flash and sparkle when Fris,bie 



284 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

and Snowden got at it ! And Vittum sometimes had a story, and Wells a 
conundrum ! And there were others not far behind. 

And what fun at dedications, raising money to pay last bills! And 
what joy to stand over against the treasury, and see the money flow in ! 

That was a great day to us when Bert Smith — I mean Hon. J. A. Smith, 
of Osage — flung out this challenge to the congregation: "Whatever the 
rest of you will do, I'll duplicate," and the little speech cost him one hun- 
dred dollars. And that was a great day to me when Hall Roberts handed 
out an envelope and said, "Enclosed you will find for your work six hun- 
dred dollars." It nearly took my breath away. And not long ago I laughed 
and I cried over a little piece of paper as it lay on my table — a check for 
one thousand dollars for home missions. Rich treasures are laid up for 
us in the memory of the service. 

The mortuary list of the decade, if written out in full, would 
make mention of one hundred and twelve men who did pastoral 
work in Iowa, besides scores of names of prominent laymen and 
women who in these years pass from our fellowship to the 
communion of the saints above. 

First in the list comes the name of Father Judeisch. He 
came to America and Iowa in 1850. He began preaching at 
Pine Creek in 1859. He was fourteen years at Grand View 
and fifteen at Davenport. " He preached a thorough conver- 
sion, and a godly life through a living faith in Jesus Christ.' ' 
At our Association meetings he always spoke in English but 
prayed in German. Some of us who had no knowledge of the 
language learned the opening sentence of his prayer, "Wir 
danken Dir, lieber Vater." One of the many contributions of 
Germany to Iowa was this good man Frederick W. Judeisch. 

The second name is Loren F. Berry. In 1890 an Ottumwa 
member inquired of Secretary Douglass "Have you a man for 
us?" The quick response was, "Yes, Berry of Fremont, 
Nebraska." He gave us eight years of great service. It 
would be difficult for any man to put more into eight years than 
he did at Ottumwa. Two hundred and forty were added to 
membership, one hundred and forty-six of these on confession 
of faith; and he served the whole state as trustee of Iowa 
College, and as a member, part of the time chairman, of the 



SCATTERING ABROAD, 1900-1910 285 

Executive Committee of the Iowa Congregational Home 
Missionary Society. As preacher, pastor and executive he 
had few equals. His friendship had a grip that never lets go. 

Next on the list is Mrs. Daniel Lane who died at Freeport, 
Maine, April 10, 1900. She was a true " yoke-fellow " with 
her husband in all his work in the pastorate and in the college. 
"She carried sweetness and light into every situation and in- 
corporated her life in patience, humility, and godly sincerity 
with the work of Christ." 

Mrs. L. F. Parker came with her husband from Oberlin, and 
shared his home and work at Grinnell and Iowa City, and a 
second time at Grinnell. For seven years she was Lady 
Principal of Iowa College and for nearly twenty-five years 
identified with the Iowa Branch of th'e Woman's Board of 
Missions for the Interior. The women of Iowa made their 
Twentieth Century Offering a tribute to her before she passed 
away, of which she said, "Oh, if their kind words made me so 
happy, how shall I feel if the Master should say, 'Well done. ' " 
She died June 5, 1900. 

At last John C. Holbrook came to his coronation. If he 
had been born eight years earlier, he would have lived in three 
centuries. He wrote his "Recollections of a Nonagenarian," 
at the age of eighty-nine. He died at Stockton, California, well 
along in the ninety-third year of his life. These pages have 
already depicted the man. He was a Puritan of Puritans, a 
"divine right Congregationalist," a preacher, evangelist, 
student, writer, a busy, tireless, efficient worker, a glorious man, 
the last of the patriarchs! 

Good Brother William L. Coleman gave us over forty years 
of faithful and efficient service. He organized the church at 
Bellevue. He was for many years bishop of the Mitchell 
Association and was one of the pioneers in the Sioux country. 
He died among strangers, who became friends to him, at Port- 
land, Oregon, November 9, 1900. 

March 12, 1902, the long-awaited message came to Moses 



286 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

K. Cross. From his cottage, ''Under the Pines," in Waterloo 
in May, 1900, he sent a tender message to his brethren of the 
State Association, telling of the meeting of the fathers and 
brethren of the early times, Reed and Guernsey, Emerson and 
Magoun, Thatcher and De Forest and others, "all good and 
noble men who have now, we trust, safely reached the ' shining 
shore ' of which they loved to sing with the rest of us while in 
the body." "With impaired health in early life, I never ex- 
pected to be an old man. With deep consciousness of short- 
comings and imperfections, yet with blessings and mercies 
more than can be numbered, trusting only and gratefully in the 
all-sufficient sacrifice offered 'once for all,' I calmly wait the 
great transition which cannot be far away. ' Now also, when 
I am old and grey-headed and my strength faileth, God 
forsake me not!'" This communication, coming from 
Brother Cross, must of course close with a poetic stanza: 

"I would not know 
Which of us brethren will be first to go; 
I only know the space cannot be long 
Between the greeting and the parting song; 
But when or where or how we're called to go, 
I would not know." 

Here is a faithful picture of the man as he appeared in the 
evening of life, sketched evidently, by the hand of Ephraim 
Adams : 

Always intent upon doing good, he was much among the people, having 
an eye for the sick and sorrowing and for the new-comers. His urbanity 
of spirit, his cultured mind, his cordial cooperation with all denominations 
in Christian work and in promoting the public welfare, won him universal 
respect and honor. He was a generous scholar, of wide reading, of fine 
taste and an open mind. In both religious and secular matters he kept 
abreast the times. In light reading, so called, he never indulged. He 
took special delight in the biography of noble lives. He was devoted 
to literature and poetry, especially hymnology. He said, "My preaching 
days are over; I must do what I do with my pen." A ready and volumi- 
nous writer, he contributed many valuable articles to the press. He was 
a lover of nature and, while health allowed, his erect form and his crown 



SCATTERING ABROAD, 1900-1910 287 

of snowy hair, worn long and in curls, gave an added charm to the wooded 
landscape and to the riverside, where he loved to ramble and meditate 
and muse in the open. He preserved his mental vigor to the last. Two 
days before his death he attended a meeting of the Twin City Ministerial 
Union (of Waterloo and Cedar Falls) and took part as usual in the dis- 
cussions. He breathed his last after only a few hours of illness, March 
12, 1902, and, in the words of one of his favorite poets, 
"He went 
To share the holy rest that waits a life well spent." 

Dr. Lyman Whiting was with us only a short time, but his 
services were of the highest order, and he left the ineffaceable 
impress of his spirit upon the churches of the state. Refilled 
the pulpit and pews of the old First Church of Dubuque for 
five years, 1864-69. The old church bell " cracked its cheeks" 
at the news from Appomattox, but the preacher's tongue ran 
on for liberty and righteousness. For two years he was 
associated with Superintendent Guernsey in editing the Iowa 
News Letter. From his study " Under the Church Eaves," 
articles went out to the Advance and other periodicals pub- 
lishing Iowa to the world. He was in great demand for 
special occasions and was always too brotherly to refuse. He 
furnished a missionary prize fund to Iowa College. In his 
long life of eighty -nine years he served thirteen churches and 
served them well. 

How some good ministers are made outside of classic insti- 
tutions and divinity halls is illustrated many times in our 
history; here is a case in point. In 1870 Father Windsor 
wrote: "I gave up one of my preaching stations during the 
winter. The exposure of riding nearly seventeen miles and 
preaching between my morning and evening services was 
more than I could well endure. But I am glad to say that I 
have prevailed upon one of the members of my church to take 
my place there. He is a young man with a little family, well 
educated, in good circumstances as a farmer, of good address 
and preaches with acceptance. Under other circumstances, I 
should urge his taking a short course in Chicago Seminary 



288 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

but as he cannot leave his family and his business, I trust he 
will prove a successful workman in the Lord's vineyard without 
these advantages." The pastor's faith in the young man was 
well founded, and his expectations more than realized in the 
ministry of Brother Chapman A. Marshall. Marshall was 
born in Ireland; three years of his childhood were passed in 
Africa; but his bringing up was at Plymouth, England. For 
years he sailed the seas, visiting many lands, sailing thrice 
around the world, then settled down on a farm in Howard 
County. Here, at Cresco, Father Windsor found him and set 
him to work. At the work he remained for thirty years, his 
longest pastorate being at McGregor from 1887 to 1900. He 
was a magnificent preacher. The glow and glory of sea and 
land and of scenes transcending both was in his sermons. In 
the open field, on a bright June day in the year 1906, God gave 
him a touch of his hand which translated him to glory. 

A little later, another brother respected, honored, loved, was 
given the grace of a painless death. The last day he walked 
the streets erect and steady; his shoulders did not droop nor 
were his steps irregular. Monday evening, March 12, 1906, 
he attended a meeting of the church, alert, attentive, eager, 
prayerful as ever, then retired to sleep, to die without groan 
or struggle or sign of pain, to wake in the morning of an endless 
day. This was Professor Henry K. Edson of Denmark Acad- 
emy, "another Arnold of another Rugby," and for years a 
professor in Iowa College. For twenty-six years he was at 
Denmark. At times two hundred and fifty students were 
under his instruction. Hundreds of these students, in the 
midst of their courses or in after years, rose up to call him 
blessed. 

How hard to pass the loved and honored names upon the 
list without a word of love and praise; such names as L. W. 
Brintnall, W. L. Byers, N. H. Whittlesey, W. H. Barrows, 
W. H. Burnard, A. Lyman, A. A. Baker, F. L. Kenyon, C. C. 
Harrah, Jacob Henn, A. S. McConnell, H. W. Parker, W. A. 



, SCATTERING ABROAD, 1900-1910 289 

Pottle, W. A. Hobbs, W. L. Brandt, Henry L. Chase, C. N. 
Lyman, C. C. Adams, Clinton Douglass, F. J. Douglass, Palmer 
Litts, R. R. Wood, John Allender, W. H. Atkinson, J. L. 
Atkinson, M. E. Dwight, J. B. Fiske, S, A. Arnold, C. P. 
Boardman, Henry Hess, William Windsor, John Windsor, 
H. L. Strain, etc. ; and Mother Rice, Mrs. George H. White, 
Edwin Manning, Honorable Robert M. Haines, Doctor Wil- 
liamson of Ottumwa and scores of others, the bone and 
sinew, the very life of our churches. 

We have told the story of Father Sands. We would be 
glad to tell it again in other phrases, but must refrain. He 
reached the end of his long and useful life, March 7, 1909. 

We ha\ e also told the story of Ephraim Adams but must be 
allowed one word more before the final farewell. Doctor 
Adams was last but one of the Band. At the commemoration 
of the fiftieth anniversary of Doctor Salter's pastorate at 
Burlington he said, " Thanks to God, that in our Seminary 
life we were drawn together as a Band to set our faces to Iowa 
in the seed-time of its history. Thanks, that as we were com- 
ing here we did not yield to solicitations of good men who told 
us that in going so far West we were passing fields of promise, 
that Iowa was distant, with a scanty population, a little good 
soil along the river, but further on of poor quality; yes, thanks, 
that we found ourselves here and that here has been our life- 
work." 

This is a brief summary of his eventful life: He was one of 
the seven ordained at Denmark, November 5, 1843. His 
first field was Mount Pleasant and vicinity. From 1844 to 
1855 Davenport with the regions round about was his parish. 
September 16, 1845, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Douglass 
of Hanover, New Hampshire, his companion for sixty years. 
Iowa College, of which he was a trustee from its begin- 
ning, drew him from the pastorate for two years; then in 1857 
he began his fifteen years' ministry in Decorah. In 1872 the 
state claimed him for ten years' service in the Superintendency 

20 



290 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

of Home Missions. The college then demanded of him another 
year of service, and Eldora was prosperous and happy in 
possession of the next six, rich, ripe years of his ministry. 
Waterloo was favored with the fourteen years of his beautiful 
old age, though all Iowa had to some extent the benediction of 
those radiant years. At the memorial services over his body 
Doctor Salter, taking a last look into the face of his brother 
of the band, exclaimed, "Farewell, comrade, farewell; a short 
farewell!" To those of us who witnessed the scene the 
heavens were opened and we caught snatches of the song of 
the redeemed "unto Him who hath loved us." So passed 
from our sight one of our very best men, "an Israelite indeed," 
a man almost without a blemish. He was a brother to us all. 
He showed us how to be ministers and how to be men. He 
rebuked our fever and our unchristian ambition. He was a 
forceful man in the counsels of our church life. For years, 
though he was the personification of modesty, he was the real 
leader of the Congregational hosts of Iowa. Iowa has never 
had a more useful citizen. 



Chapter XIV 
THROUGH THE DECADES 

As a narration of events this book is already finished. We 
have run through the history by years or by decades, from 
1833-1911. The days of the years of our pilgrimage are three- 
score and seventeen years. Not a tithe, not a hundredth 
part of the history has been given, but enough, perhaps, to 
illustrate the character of our workers, the significance of our 
institutions and something of the value of the services of the 
denomination to the life of the people of a great state. To 
the narrative it has been our privilege to add a catalogue of 
the churches and the men who have served them. Every 
living church has been listed and some that had only a name to 
live. Every Pilgrim pastor has had a little space, enough at 
least to record his name. 

It seems fitting, in concluding chapters, to glance through 
the decades in hasty retrospect and note the things which 
stand out most conspicuously along the way. 

First to attract our attention is the settlement of the state 
and the making of the commonwealth. The theme suggests 
a series of dissolving views. The wilderness blossoms into a 
fruitful garden. The Indian trail broadens and straightens 
into a busy highway. The wigwam is transformed into a 
cabin, the cabin into a cottage, while the cottage here and there 
becomes a veritable mansion. The lumbering stage-coach 
gives place to the rushing railway train. Savage life retreats 
before the adventurers and immigrants of every grade and 
clime as they form their settlements along the Father of 
Waters, as they push up the inland streams, and finally spread 
themselves over all the state. 

291 



292 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

The tide of immigration began to set in, in 1833. In 1840 
the population of the state was only a few hundreds; in 1850 it 
was about one hundred thousand; in 1860, eight hundred 
thousand; in 1870, one million; twenty years later we are just 
a little short of the second million, and now a little short of 
two and a half millions. It would be interesting, if it were 
possible to determine how large a proportion of the settlers 
were of Pilgrim antecedents. Probably not so many as we 
have been accustomed to think. The popular impression that 
New England made Iowa "the Massachusetts of the West" 
by force of numbers is largely erroneous; the real dominance 
of New England has been through its character and ideals 
incarnate in strong personalities who have given leadership 
to the state. Professor F. I. Herriott of Drake University 
has examined in some detail this "New England tradition," 
calling especial attention to the southern source of much of 
our early immigration, which up to 1850 had outnumbered the 
direct immigration from New England six to one, and referring 
largely to a southern source that great majority of the popu- 
lation which came from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and 
Illinois. It was only after the passing of the Kansas-Nebraska 
bill that the real New England immigration began, and those 
elements gathered force which arrayed the state against the 
extension of slavery. Until 1854, Iowa was claimed with 
Indiana and Illinois, as solidly Democratic and in favor of 
the extension of slavery. After his election Governor Grimes 
wrote: "Our Southern friends have regarded Iowa as their 
northern stronghold. I thank God it is conquered." For 
this change of sentiment we have already shown that our 
Congregational leaders were largely responsible. They brought 
the New England conscience to bear upon the problems of 
the day and place, and by their untiring advocacy of justice 
and freedom helped to mould the public feeling and determine 
the public attitude upon these questions. 

I should like, however, to call attention to the fact that even 



THROUGH THE DECADES 293 

immigration direct from the South did not always mean the 
bringing in of pro-slavery adherents. Many families left that 
section for the very reason that slavery was repugnant to 
them; and there is a Puritan stream which flows from the 
South as well as from New England. My own grandparents, 
Scotch Presbyterians, left Southern soil and the Old School 
Presbyterian church simply because they would have no part 
nor lot in the enslavement of their fellow men. 

After 1854 the proportion of immigration from New England 
rose rapidly, and that from the South diminished, but through 
the whole period of settlement the bulk of population came 
from the states immediately to the east of us, Illinois, Indiana 
and Ohio. In these states the original Congregational ele- 
ments even had become Presbyterianized, and the building of 
our fellowship has been through the leavening of elements 
largely foreign to our ideals. 

Denmark furnishes a concrete example of the influence of 
New England Congregationalism in Iowa. The Boston 
Recorder in 1867 thus described Denmark: 

A village which signally illustrates the thrift and triumph of Puritan 
principles. Thirty years ago, a few families from New England settled 
there. They were poor in this world's goods, but rich in faith. They 
laid the foundations of their settlement in prayer. They appointed a 
place for a church here, and an academy upon a spacious public square. 
To these central objects of their desire, were their first hard-earned means 
dedicated. No Sabbath-breaking, nor profanity, nor liquor-selling, was 
allowed among them. The first glass of intoxicating drink is yet to be 
sold there. Saloons are unknown in Denmark, and in their simplicity, 
the people are content without them. Hostility to oppression was, from 
the first, a marked feature of their teaching and practice, and being near 
the Missouri border, they had opportunity to honor their principles amid 
sacrifices and losses. One third of their income, from the first, has been 
given to various benevolent objects abroad. At one special effort during 
the war, they gave twelve hundred dollars to the freedmen. Less than 
fifty families comprise this community, and there is not one who would 
be called rich among them. . . . The tide is turned, and now Mis- 
souri no longer comes to Denmark with bloodhounds and revolvers to 
hunt fugitives secreted there, but she sends many of her sons and daugh- 



294 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

ters to that "Yankee heaven" to learn the principles that have made its 
people thrifty in this world and hopeful of a better heaven above. Thus 
has the power of example been felt widely; and the process of assimilation 
to New England tastes and the conquest to New England principles have 
been extended, until their complete triumph is made certain throughout 
the Northwest. 

Father Turner alludes to this change of sentiment in one of 
his annual sermons. He says: "Your opinions have been re- 
garded as fanatical, radical, and treasonable, to such a degree, 
as I understand, that the name of our quiet village is as familiar 
in the state south of us as St. Louis. Your name has been cast 
out as evil by almost all men. But the tables are turned, and 
you are now awarded a respect in this state as widespread as 
your unsavory name was a few years ago." 

Congregationalists have wielded a mighty influence in Iowa. 
Perhaps it is not too much to claim that this book brings before 
us one of the most prominent groups of the builders of our 
commonwealth. Some years ago we had a gathering at our 
Capitol to unveil the portrait of a man thought worthy of this 
high honor. Who was this man? An old pioneer preacher; 
a Congregational preacher; William Salter his name. Gov- 
ernor Cummins was in attendance and, of course, made a 
speech, and this speech was a good one for he said in substance 
this: "Not the politicians, not the captains of industry, not 
the leaders in great material enterprises of the state have made 
Iowa what she is, but men such as this, men of his character 
and of his class, these are the men who have made Iowa a great, 
noble, peerless, Christian commonwealth." This testimony 
is true. These are the men who build the commonwealth; 
such men as Asa Turner, Julius A. Reed, Reuben Gay lord, 
Oliver Emerson and John C. Holbrook, such men as the Iowa 
Band, such men as Guernsey, Taylor, Magoun, Sands, Grin- 
nell, Brooks, Thatcher, De Forest, Hill, Frisbie, Ficke; such 
men as Nathaniel C. Deering of Osage, "the perfect Christian 
gentleman," Dr, Charles Beardsley of Burlington, "the 



THROUGH THE DECADES 295 

Christian editor and statesman," Samuel Merrill, the Chris- 
tian governor, and his noble brother Jeremiah, the Christian 
banker, the Hon. Robert M. Haines of Grinnell, the Christian 
lawyer, J. C. Knapp of Keosauqua, the incorruptible judge, 
Nathan P. Dodge, the Christian philanthropist, Josiah L. 
Pickard, the Christian educator, and hosts of others of like 
spirit, in the pulpits and in the pews; these are the men that 
build the commonwealth. 

We cannot claim preeminence in numbers. Numerically 
Congregationalism is small, and Congregational Iowa has 
never boasted of bigness, only of quality. The number of 
our host, counted by the membership of all of our churches 
from the beginning, is 141,000, about one half of these having 
united on confession of faith. Our total ministerial force 
numbers less than fifteen hundred. In ideal conditions it 
requires only two or three men to serve a Congregational 
church for seventy-five years. A thousand men coming to 
spend their lives in Iowa would have amply sufficed for our 
needs. 

Probably nothing in all our history is more impressive than 
the heroism, toil and sacrifice of our pioneer preachers and of 
our home missionaries through all the decades. There is 
little complaint of hardships, but there are incidental glimpses 
of them on every page of our history. Julius A. Reed says, 
"The home missionary salary of those times was four hundred 
dollars, and I do not recollect hearing its sufficiency questioned 
by a missionary." Elsewhere he writes: "There is not a 
stream in Iowa, north and east of Cedar Falls or south of Cedar 
Falls and east of Des Moines, that has not been forded by some 
of these pioneers and some of the largest at many different 
points. Sometimes they drove their horses through the creeks 
and caught them as they came out, crossing themselves on 
logs, sometimes they swam their horses by the side of a canoe ; 
sometimes they took their buggies across the larger streams 
piecemeal, in skiffs. Father Turner once swam the creeks 



296 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

between Farmington and Denmark with his horse and buggy, 
though he could not swim one stroke himself. It was hard 
for him to stop when he was once started. Brother Lane had 
a narrow escape in the ice at Keosauqua. Brother Ripley 
was carried over the dam at Bentonsport." Mr. Reed himself 
in the Cedar River south of Fairfield, " was dropped behind the 
crossbar with his arms across the shafts," while the horse ran 
down stream at a gallop. "At each jump," he said, "the 
horse's hind feet came up before my face, a foot away." Forty 
years later he still "remembered just how they looked." 

"In those days," says Mr. Reed again, "bacon, corn bread, 
coffee and potatoes were the staple articles of food while dried 
apples, pumpkin butter and the native crab were the delicacies 
of the table." Page after page might be quoted in picturing the 
romantic hardships of the poineer preachers in the new country. 

Perhaps the best concrete illustration of heroism and sacri- 
fice in the service is furnished by Father Oliver Emerson. The 
story of his life of pain and poverty, of travel and tribulation 
and of incessant labor has been written, but only in small part, 
upon these pages. What a revelation of faith and devotion 
to high ideals appears in the following. An unsigned article 
from an "Iowa Veteran," which appears in the Home Mis- 
sionary for 1879, and which is easily to be traced to Father 
Emerson gives a glimpse of a home missionary wrestling with 
the problem of his children's education : 

"My oldest," he says, "is a freshman in college. If he can complete his 
college and seminary course without interruption (which is doubtful) and 
I live to see that day, 1 shall be well advanced in my seventy-third year. 
Our daughter now seventeen, thinks that a college education is as neces- 
sary for her highest usefulness as for that of her brother. She now hopes 
by hard study, to be prepared for the ladies' course, entering college next 
fall at an advanced standing, and so graduate at the same time with her 
brother. Now as to provision to meet the exigency. If our books and 
clothes and the house over our heads, with all we have in the world, were 
put under the hammer tomorrow, they would not bring half enough to 
educate our children, to say nothing about provision for ourselves. Our 
program for the future is; 



THROUGH THE DECADES 297 

" 1. To sell what little we have, as fast as it is needed, both for our com- 
fort and to meet their expenses, and then trust our children to take care 
of us if we live to see them through. 

"2. To work as hard and as long as we can at such work as we are able 
to do. I can earn a little at preaching. I expect to do little more for the 
churches, because they have no use for half a minister, and I cannot pre- 
tend to be more than that. Moreover, I have never been a popular man. 
It is a wonder to me that people have heard me so long. My wife is a true 
yoke-fellow in this part of the program. She is working beyond her 
strength. 

" 3. We expect to practice the most rigid economy. It is barely possible, 
though not likely, that I may hear my son proclaim the gospel before I die." 

In January of 1883 he writes again: "During the last two 
years my work has been diminishing until, at the beginning of 
the present winter, my stated appointments were given up. 
For several years now I have not been able to walk without a 
crutch, and am in various respects encompassed with infirmi- 
ties. I expect to preach but little if any more. Last autumn 
completed forty-five years of stated preaching, and fifty-five 
years since I began preparation for my work/' He adds: "I 
have nothing to fall back upon in the decline of life, owning 
nothing but the house we live in. But I have a noble wife 
who has for many years, by taking boarders and by other 
means, aided our income and the education of the children." 
The children graduated together from Iowa College in 1882. 
The son is now a professor in Adelbert College, the daughter 
the wife of Principal A. C. Hart with whom she has given 
almost a quarter of a century to the work of our Congrega- 
tional academies in Nebraska. 

But the spirit of the fathers has rested upon their sons in 
every generation. Here, in a later day is a man allowing 
himself only twelve meals a week. In answer to expostula- 
tions, he explains: "My daughter is working her way through 
college. I must save in this way to help her." What will 
not a Congregational missionary do to help a child through 
college, and this not for the child's sake alone, but for the 
world's sake, 



298 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Here is a home missionary home in January, 1898. Sunday 
morning the thermometer is twenty degrees below zero; 
Monday morning it shows thirty below. The pastor's salary 
is three hundred dollars plus the use of a little parsonage which 
cost less than four hundred dollars. The Home Missionary 
Superintendent sits with the missionary, his wife and four 
children around a little stove that did its best, and did well 
for a stove which had cost only $1.50; but which couldn't do 
much because it was so small. For two nights the mission- 
ary sat up to keep that stove going and to keep the house 
from freezing up. Complaint? Talk of hardship? Not a 
word of it. But the Superintendent felt ashamed of himself 
and of the Congregational people of Iowa that we should 
allow one of our missionaries to live and work so near the line 
of suffering and want; and he left on an early train that bitter 
Monday morning, resolved that the diminutive stove should 
be replaced by one full-grown ; and that the salary of this man 
must in some way be increased. Within a week a splendid 
" Round Oak" heater was installed, and at the next meeting 
of the Executive Committee the salary was raised to five hun- 
dred dollars. The missionary testified that when the new 
commission reached him he felt that he was "next door to 
heaven." 

The money cost of the service is also great. It runs up into 
the millions. We Congregationalists have to-day not less 
than three millions invested in property and endowments, and 
the salaries and incidental expenses for the three-quarters of 
a century add other millions to the cost. 

But the compensations far exceed the cost. The service 
itself has been an exceeding great reward. All the way through 
the decades we hear the missionaries singing as they go forth 
with the word of salvation in their hearts and upon their 
tongues. There is a note of gladness through all the years. 
Father Turner writes: " Probably I have known more 'about 
perils by bridgeless streams and houseless prairies and log 



THROUGH THE DECADES 299 

houses and pioneer fare in Illinois and Iowa than almost any- 
one, and still I bless God that I had the privilege thus to do. 
As to sacrifices, I never felt that I had made any, because I 
wanted to do the work." Hutchinson longs to live and see 
what God is to do for Iowa and to help in the doing of it. 
Spaulding, there on the borders of the Indian country, again 
and again breaks forth in songs of gladness, rejoicing in his 
work. Bixby counts his one year in the ministry the best of 
his life. Father Hurlbut thanks God for the privilege of 
laboring in destitute fields. At the burial of a daughter, on a 
wet cold day, the water standing in the grave, when the 
service is over and the people about to turn away, he says: 
"Wait a bit, wait a bit," then, after picturing the desolations 
of the scene, he soars aloft as a lark on a June morning and 
carols forth a jubilant song of praise to God for life and im- 
mortality brought to light in the gospel. 

One of the great compensations of the service is its fellow- 
ship. Church fellowship, in the Sabbath worship, the Sunday 
school, the prayer meetings, the social gatherings, the pastoral 
receptions and perchance the "donation party," how delight- 
ful it all is, and what joy and comfort and strength it brings 
into the hearts and lives of those who are united in its common 
bond. 

The fellowship of the pastoral brotherhood is something 
unique. I well remember the thrill of a new experience as I 
attended my first meeting of Association up there at McGregor 
in October of 1868. I fell in love with all the brethren; Father 
Windsor, Brother Ephraim Adams, Brother Sloan, Brother 
Coleman and all the rest, even the young fellow who, after 
preaching, went crazy and kept me up all one night to keep 
him within bounds. And how delightful those weekly visits 
from neighbor Coleman as he came down from Mitchell to 
chat with us and cheer us up. His presence was always a 
benediction, and his jokes and stories — though we learned to 
label and number them — always served their purpose. Good 



300 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

and helpful neighbors were Brother Coleman and his wife 
Temperance, and the " Apostolic Jim" of their stable did us 
many a good turn. The fellowship of that ordaining council, 
composed of Father Windsor, Father Tenney, and Brothers 
Adams, Sloan, Coleman and Bordwell, how helpful that 
was! In the peculiar condition of the parish I doubt if I 
could have succeeded in getting hold of the work at all without 
the endorsement and influence of that council. May I leave 
here my testimony in favor of the time-honored practice of 
ordination by council called by the local church? One of the 
many wise sayings of Brother Sloan was, " Congregationalism 
lacks occasions" Here is one of the occasions we cannot 
afford to give up. 

How inspiring the great, strong, refreshing fellowship of 
the General Association! Here let the reader pause and take 
down his copy of the "Iowa Band," and read the story of 
the Iowa Association in those early times. How they went 
on foot — some of them two hundred miles, and felt well paid 
for the journey; how they went on horseback, and later, when 
there were roads and bridges, by "buggies"; how they fell in 
with each other on the way, and stopped at log cabins for 
entertainment; how they sang and prayed and discussed the 
great themes of the times and of the Kingdom; how they 
stayed over Sunday and lingered a while Monday morning, 
and how they prized the fellowship of the delegates coming in 
from the great world outside. A daughter of one of the 
missionaries put it about right when she said, "The best of 
all was to see them shake hands the first night after the sermon. " 
The best part of every meeting is the meeting itself though we 
can add without contradiction, "The best of all is God with 
us." 

Here is E. K. Alden's picture of one of the early meetings 
of the Association: "There are no more self-denying and 
faithful missionaries of Christ anywhere than were represented 
there, — the patriarchal Father Turner at the head, appar- 



THROUGH THE DECADES 301 

ently the youngest of them all. How these weather-beaten 
men and women talked and prayed! How they laid hold of 
each other, and of any casual stranger who might be present, 
without waiting for any formal introduction when the modera- 
tor announced that the time had arrived for the miscellaneous 
shaking of hands all around the house! How enthusiasti- 
cally they united business with enjoyment! How tenderly 
they sang their parting hymn, standing around the table where 
together they had partaken of the sacred emblems of a Sav- 
iour's love, breaking forth spontaneously into song during 
the sacramental feast! " 

Well, some features of the old time Association meetings 
are changed! We are in more of a hurry now, and have more 
business to transact. But some features are unchanged: 
The devotional hour still comes in the middle of the forenoon, 
and the greetings are just as cordial, and care for each others' 
welfare just as real, and the fellowship just as genuine and 
refreshing as in the days of yore. 

Brother Ephraim Adams missed but one meeting of the 
State Association in sixty-five years. My own record, not 
complete yet, is not so good; two meetings have been missed 
in forty years, on account of domestic felicities. But I 
would leave my testimony, with Brother Adams', to the 
value of our annual state gatherings. It is a distinct loss, 
to any minister especially, to miss any one of them. 

The larger fellowship, represented by our National and 
International Councils, and our great missionary societies 
and operations, and the traditions and institutions of the 
Fathers, handed down to us, how glorious it all is! No com- 
munion of Christians has a more inspiring heritage than we! 
Then the practical fellowship operating through the Home 
Missionary Society, the Church Building Society and the 
Ministerial Relief Fund, how substantially good that is! 
Brother A. M. Beaman, up in the Sioux country, on receiving 
a commission carrying a grant of two hundred dollars, ex- 



302 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

claimed, "Now I feel that I have something solid on which 
to stand." So hundreds of men, from 1836 to the present 
day, laboring in our fields in Iowa in this Home Missionary 
ministry of love, have felt the strong arm of the denomination 
around them to give them aid and comfort. 

At more than two hundred dedications in Iowa, as there 
was pictured on a blackboard a mountain of debt to be leveled 
to the ground, the Secretary of Home Missions has taken 
the top off the mountain by wiping out the pledge of the 
Church Building Society, for $200, $300, $500, or whatever 
the amount might be, saying, "This is the good right hand 
of the Congregational denomination reached out to you to-day 
in practical fellowship." What cheer and comfort in this 
mutual cooperation! 

And how gracious and beautiful this fellowship of minis- 
tering to the needy families of our united household! Here is 
good Father Harvey Adams, old now, and alone, but able 
to appreciate keenly the fellowship of his brethren. It is 
the morning to start to the Association, but Captain Powers 
finds him at work in his garden. "Why, aren't you going 
to the Association?" said the captain. "No," said he, "no, 
I rather thought I would not go this year." The real reason 
was that he did not feel that he could afford the expense. So 
on that day as others were going he stayed at home, at work 
in his garden. "But you should have seen him," says Mr. 
Powers, "a few days after, when word came that an allowance 
of two hundred dollars a year had been voted him from the 
Relief Fund. It lifted him right out. He was rich. He was 
a millionaire!" And he said, "Now I can go to the Associa- 
tions and to college Commencements, and buy a new book 
now and then." 

Here is a young man, under thirty-five years of age, with 
wife and five small children, stricken down in a moment 
with a lingering disease from which there is no prospect that 
he will ever recover. What is to be done? The Relief 



THROUGH THE DECADES 303 

Fund brings temporary relief. The months lengthen into 
years and still the Fund — $25.00 of it — finds its way to that 
home month by month. The family is driven from shack 
to shack. " Can't we provide him a home?" is the inquiry 
of the Secretary of the Executive Committee. "Do you 
think you can do it? If so, go ahead." And he did it. A 
day's canvass at Grinnell and a few letters to a select company 
outside secured the funds, and at the next meeting of the 
Committee the Secretary could report the house, now worth 
$1,500, purchased and paid for, and the family has been cared 
for and they are now in fairly comfortable circumstances. 

We have pensioned four of our old veterans : Harvey Adams, 
W. L. Coleman, Father Sands, and Brother J. D. Mason. 
E. B. Turner of the Band received a little aid from the Fund 
in his last days and Mrs. Turner also a little help, but the 
estate refunded the amount of the grants. Mrs. Daniel Lane 
received aid, but paid back the full amount. Mrs. A. B. 
Spaulding of the Band had aid for a number of years, and we 
helped to bear the funeral expenses. We have given aid to 
several families in temporary distress by reason of sickness 
or death. We have aided a number of widows for a term of 
years. We have ministered to more than fifty families of 
our household of faith by this bounty. The Fund was started 
in 1874 by Rev. Job Cushman who set apart nine hundred 
dollars for the purpose. It was stipulated that the Fund 
should produce an income of two hundred dollars a year 
before any of it could be used. The increase of the Fund was 
undertaken by the State Association, the first donation 
coming from the Anamosa church in 1878. The amount 
accumulated, outside of the Cushman Fund, which was being 
administered by J. M. Chamberlain, Treasurer of Iowa 
College, when it came into the hands of the Iowa Home Mis- 
sionary Society in 1882, was $638.40. Three years later the 
total was $2,732. In 1890 the assets, counting the Relief 
Home, were $5,925. In 1905 the Fund made a leap from 



304 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

$7,000 to $9,087 when most of the stockholders of the Clear 
Lake Retreat turned over their interests to the Relief Fund, 
the property netting us $2,494. In 1908 the Fund was 
enriched by $2,000 from the estate of Rev. and Mrs. W. H. 
Barrows, who were for many years home missionaries in Iowa. 
To-day the Fund amounts to $12,160. What a privilege to 
have some part and lot in this gracious ministry! Let every 
reader of these pages have a hand in it. 

Another great compensation of the service has been its 
accomplishments: Three hundred churches, with their pastors; 
thirty-seven thousand members; $2,265,000 in church property 
besides $33,000 of invested funds, $2,000,000 in college prop- 
erty and endowments, — is it not indeed a goodly plant? 

And the output, what of that! The plant itself is a part 
of the output. Returns began at once to appear, in the gath- 
ering of churches, in the establishment of Denmark Academy 
and Bradford Academy, Iowa College and Tabor College. 
The plant itself is an outgrowth of the service. Hundreds 
of communities have been redeemed from the pioneer vices 
and made fit places for people to live in and children to be 
born in by the coming of the missionary and by the planting 
of the church. Many of the readers of this book have heard 
of Abner Kneeland, an infidel from Boston, who led out a 
colony of his sort and settled on the banks of the Des Moines 
near Farmington. They called the place Salubria; and said, 
"No minister shall ever come to this community to air his 
superstitions/ ' There was a child born in that community 
whose father named him Voltaire Paine, wishing thus to 
dedicate him to the cause of infidelity. That boy, Voltaire 
Paine, is to day a Congregational deacon. Not just the 
name you would choose for a Congregational deacon, but he 
is just as good a deacon as if his name were John Calvin, or 
John Wesley or John Knox, or any other super-orthodox 
man. How did he become a deacon? Daniel Lane, one of 
the Iowa Band teaching and preaching down there at Keosau- 



THROUGH THE DECADES 305 

qua, got hold of this young man and made a Christian out 
of him. To-day he is one of the strong men of our denomi- 
nation in the state. That infidel colony was scattered long 
ago. How? Over the pulpit of the Farmington church 
hangs the picture of an old minister, Harvey Adams by name, 
another member of the Band, for twenty years pastor at 
Farmington. Over in that infidel colony people would die, 
of course, and children would die, and sometimes the mother 
heart would be wrung with anguish and she would say, "I 
cannot have my child buried until some man of God has come 
and said some words of grace over the body." So the mother 
in her sorrow would invite Mr. Adams to conduct a little 
funeral service; and so by the grace of God, " raised the wind 
of the Spirit" by which this infidel colony was scattered to 
the four quarters of the globe. A few years later you could 
find at Farmington a daughter of Abner Kneeland a member 
of the church, and a granddaughter a beautiful little Christian 
Endeavorer and a member of the church; illustration this, 
of what has gone on in hundreds of places in Iowa by the 
coming of a missionary and by the planting of the missionary 
church. 

In the output, may be reckoned the 141,000 gathered into 
the membership of our churches; the three or four millions 
raised for the establishment and maintenance of our institu- 
tions; the $1,538,023 contributed to missions at home and 
abroad; the hundreds of young men we have raised up for 
the ministry, and the still larger number of young men and 
women we have sent into other fields of Christian service, 
and the tens of thousands of members we have sent out into 
the work of the Kingdom in the regions beyond. 

Doctor Patton, of the American Board, furnishes a list 
of sixty-one Iowa men and women who, beginning in 1856, 
have done missionary work in foreign fields, — China, Ceylon, 
India, Japan, Micronecia, Mexico, Turkey, West Africa 
and Zulu. The list is as follows: George D. Marsh, Willis W. 

21 



306 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

and Harriett M. Meade, George and Esther Robbins White, 
L. F. Ostrander, Given Griffiths, Dr. A. 0. Hoover, John L. 
and Carrie Guernsey Atkinson, Frank N. White, C. B. Olds 
and wife, Dr. James B. McCord and wife, Albert S. Houston 
and wife, Irving M. Channon and wife, James Goldsbury, 
Howard S. Gault and wife, Benjamin De Haan, Vinton P. 
Eastman, Obed S. Johnson, Frank Van Allen, George W. 
Wright, Dr. and Mrs. William Cammack, Dr. Henry S. 
Hollenbeck, Mrs. Jennie Perry, Mary M. Patrick, Mrs. Laura 
Seeley, Mary E. Brewer, Alice Heald, Ida Mellenger, Mrs. 
Martha Haskell, Effie M. Chambers, Johanna L. Graff, 
Minnie B. Mills, Mary M. Foote, Stella M. Longbridge, 
C. May Welpton, Susan W. Orvis, Harriett Townsend, Hester 
A. Hillis, Mary A. Pinkerton, Mrs. Rhoda A. Clark, Mrs. 
Margaret L. Walkup, Annette A. Palmer, Mrs. Sarah Price, 
Mrs. Mary E. Newell, Grace A. Funk, Edna and Vida Lowery, 
Mrs. Myra G. Case, Mrs. Helen Bush Olds, Mrs. Helen 
Cattell Olds, Augusta J. Burris, Harriett A. Houston, and 
Mrs. Mary Etta Fairbanks. 

Numbers of the above are missionaries of the Woman's 
Board of Missions for the Interior, of which the Iowa Branch 
is a part. This Branch was organized in 1876, and has put 
into the work $256,310. These good women of the Branch 
can hardly be called gleaners, they are more nearly the pro- 
prietors of the field. Of Mrs. G. F. Magoun, and Mrs. L. F. 
Parker, early standard bearers of the organization, we have 
already spoken. Of Mrs. A. L. Frisbie this is all too little 
to say; she was for nine years President of the Branch, and 
this was a very small segment of the circle of her Christian 
activities. The present executive officers of the Society are 
Mrs. W. C. Wilcox of Iowa City, and Mrs. Ella R. Towle 
of Grinnell. 

The list of Iowa homeland missionaries is far too long to 
be inserted here. As a fitting tribute to the person and 
work of one of them, Miss Mary Coffins of Keokuk, who 



MRS. SARAH CANDACE PARKER MRS. G. F. MAGOUN 

Secretary President 

MRS. MARY S. KELSEY MRS. A. L FRISBIE 

Secretary President 



MRS. E. R. POTTER 

Treasurer 

MRS. CLARA WHIPPLE REW 

Treasurer 





u 



Stfim' 









MRS ELLA REINKING TOWLE MRS. NELLIE CLARKE PARKER MRS. J F. HARDIN 

Secretary President Treasurer 

MRS. JULIA D. BRAINERD MRS. W. C. WILCOX MISS GRACE POTWIN 

Secretary of Children's Work President Secretary of Young Women s Work 

OFFICERS IOWA BRANCH W. B. M. I. 1876-1911 



THROUGH THE DECADES 307 

began her work among the Indians in 1875, we have copied 
the following lines: 

"To the land of the Dakotas 

Where the storm-king meets the north-wind, 

Where the snowdrifts heap the valleys 

And the west-wind racks the pine-trees, 

Came a fearless, pale-faced maiden 

Whom the Indians named Winona. 

Came she from the land of sunshine, 

Verdant meadows, golden grain-fields; 

From the land of schools and churches 

From her home and friends and neighbors, 

To this far-away Dakota. 

Feared she not the storm and tempest, 

Feared not Indian chiefs in war-paint, 

Nor young braves on ponies dashing 

With a speed to match the west- wind. 

Shrunk she not from filth and rudeness, 

Stolid faces, uncombed tresses; 

Brave of heart was our Winona. 

Clad in virtue like a garment, 

Faith in Christ her only armor, 

Love for souls her only motive, 

Came she with her open Bible, 
. And she read it, taught it, lived it, 

Till they saw its wondrous power. 

It had brought Winona to them; 

It had filled her heart with pity 

For a poor benighted people, 

So they reverenced Winona. 

Old men came to her for counsel; 

Young braves ceased their crazy dances; 

Maidens copied gowns and manners; 

And they learned of Christ the Master 

Through the life of their Winona." 

Conspicuous among the Iowa workers in the Southland 
are the names of President H. S. De Forest of Talledega, 
President James G. Merrill of Fisk, and President Frank G. 
Woodworth of Tougaloo. An Iowa boy, a graduate of Iowa 
College, H. Paul Douglass, after three years' service as Super- 



308 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

intendent of Education for the American Missionary Asso- 
ciation schools in the South, is now one of the Secretaries of 
the Association. 

Iowa has furnished men for many important stations 
throughout the country. Doctor Holbrook did great service 
for the Kingdom in Illinois, New York, California, and Eng- 
land, as well as in Iowa. E. B. Turner was one of Iowa's 
great contributions to Missouri. Newell Dwight Hillis was 
a Magnolia boy. Frank Newhall White was born at Lyons. 
Charles R. Brown is a product of Iowa, a graduate of our 
State University. George L. Cady learned how to preach 
at Iowa City and Dubuque before he was promoted to Boston. 
President Eaton of Beloit College received a part of his train- 
ing for that high position at Newton; President McClelland 
got about all of his furnishings for his great work at Gales- 
burg, at Denmark and Tabor. C. C. Adams and Albert 
Shaw are graduates of Iowa College; and Jesse Macy, one 
of America's most noted political economists, is a graduate, 
and a professor of forty years standing. The list of Iowa 
contributions to the work of the Kingdom lengthens out 
indefinitely. The sons and daughters of Iowa are in the 
fields of the Kingdom, working in every department of Chris- 
tian activity East, West, North, South, the world around. 

What has been the output of Congregational Iowa in the 
highest realms of mind and spirit we cannot tell. We have 
no statistics of spiritual results; we cannot catalogue or tabulate 
them. But we may be sure that Congregational Iowa has 
put something and much into the making of the common- 
wealth; into the leavening of the nation; into the redemption 
of communities, families and individual lives; into the upbuild- 
ing of character unto life eternal. 

Of the future of Congregationalism in Iowa we would not 
venture to prophesy in minute detail, but still with confidence 
we may predict that through the decades yet to be the Pil- 
grims of Iowa will be marching on. We may not guess what 



THROUGH THE DECADES 309 

further changes of polity, what new denominational names 
and customs, or what amalgamations with other bodies of 
Christian disciples, there may be, but we may be sure that 
there will be church life after the faith and order of the Pil- 
grims of Plymouth Rock, and of Denmark, to the end of time. 
We are admonished by recent events that there may be slow 
growth of population and of denomination but growth there 
must be in both directions. Some years ago one of our 
Iowa pastors opened his mouth in prophecy to this effect: 
"Iowa can sustain a far denser population than Massachusetts. 
Her soil is richer and the acreage is seven times as great. 
But Massachusetts has over two hundred people to the 
square mile, Iowa but thirty-six. The day is surely coming 
when Iowa will have as many people to the square mile as 
Massachusetts; she will then have upwards of twelve million 
people. What vast cities there are to be, what great centers 
of commerce and manufacture furnishing employment to the 
coming millions! What developments of agriculture with art 
and science and every invention for home comfort! Think 
of Iowa as the home of twelve million people! And they're 
coming. We are in the ground-swell of a mighty movement; 

' I hear the tread of pioneers 
Of millions yet to be, 
The first low wash of waves, where soon 
Will roll a mighty sea.'" 

This was in 1890. The vision seems less likely of fulfill- 
ment now than it did then. But "if it tarry, wait for it." 
Not immediately, perhaps, but sometime in the future, when 
this "cheap land" craze is over; when the deserts prove them- 
selves unfit for habitation; when the roving fever of our people 
is somewhat allayed, — but oh, when will that ever be! when 
people realize that the "corn belt" is the garden spot of the 
world, and that "corn is king," then the fulfillment of the 
prophecy will begin to come. Listen to the lay of "Farmer 
Peablossom" of Iowa: 



310 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

"The South wind blew soft and the sunshine was hot; 
Old farmer Peablossom looked over his lot 
Of waving green corn, and smiled a broad smile, 
And said : ' There's none better for many a mile. 
It's grew and it's grew till it's grew to be great. 
And all I'm afreed of is I planted it late. 
It's growin' and tender, but can't freeze tonight. 
A good week or two more will make it all right.' 
Just then he exclaimed for he heard something drop; 
'Twas the mercury falling far down from the top, 

The sun set in cold glory, clear as a bell; 
He shivered and said: 'It's an awful cold spell; 
Untimely, destructive, unwelcome, malign, 
'Twill kill every stalk of that green corn of mine!' 

A dim morning followed that night of alarm; 
The clouds had swung over and shielded his farm. 
That danger was past, and good Peablossom's face 
Smiled broadly — his corn had a season of grace; 
Contentment and gladness his features adorn, 
He's happy and jubilant over his corn, 
Which, rustling around him stately and tall, 
Murmurs: Towa's sure to come right in the fall.' 
So be not afraid, noting tokens of frost, 
That the world has broke through and everything's lost; 
And be thankful that God when he ordered the zone, 
Made Iowa's garden delightsome, His own." 

Iowa is a rural state; we cannot expect to count inhab- 
itants as New York and Illinois; but Iowa is not to be 
depopulated. This "Garden of Eden," this " Mesopotamia 
of America/ ■ where the people sing, "I've reached the land 
of corn and swine/' will never cease to attract population 
until eventually arrive those millions of which the prophets 
have spoken. 

So the future is bright for Congregational Iowa. In 1897 
the Home Missionary Secretary concluded his fifteenth 
report as follows: "The work will go on. The churches will 
grow. The membership will continue to increase. One by 



THROUGH THE DECADES 311 

one churches now aided will come to self-support; new fields 
will open, good men for the service will never be wanting; 
the streams running into the treasury may sometimes run 
low, but they will never run dry. When we come to our 
thirtieth anniversary we will count four hundred churches and 
more, with fifty thousand members and more, and benevo- 
lences $100,000 and more. Please mark my modest prophecy, 
and may you all be there to see, and I to say, 'I told you 
so. ,,, 

Well, we are within two years of that thirtieth anniversary 
of self-support. A portion of this prophecy has been fulfilled. 
The streams of benevolence have not run dry, but are running 
with a more abundant flow than ever before. In 1908 the 
missionary offerings were, not the $100,000 prophesied, but 
$111,769, and in 1909 they were $182,565. But other parts 
of the vision appear to have been illusions. We still lack 
twelve thousand of the fifty thousand membership, the net 
gain of the thirteen years being only 2,415, though the aggre- 
gate of accessions has been 42,614. Taking in the extensions 
of Congregational Iowa in the Dakotas and on the Coast, 
the vision is still verified. 

But where are the four hundred churches? A hundred of 
them, if anywhere, must also be in the Dakotas or on the 
Coast or up in Canada. Beyond a doubt some of them are 
there. If we can trust our Minutes, there has been a net 
loss of thirty churches in the thirteen years — three hundred 
and twenty-three then, two hundred and ninety-three now. 
But here again, "if it tarry, wait for it." The wandering 
sheep, poor lambs, will some of them return. Soon our natural 
increase will be secured to us again. Some of our cities are 
growing even now and they will grow more rapidly. By and 
by they will all begin to grow. And, as the population 
thickens in the city and the country, there will be a demand 
for more churches, union churches, that is to say Congrega- 
tional churches. There is a growing demand for ecclesi- 



312 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

astical liberty and democracy, with the broadest type of 
charity and the highest type of manhood, and therefore 
by these tokens, there is a growing call for churches of the 
faith and order of the Pilgrim Fathers. So with fervent 
hearts and unshaken confidence we may pray, "The Pilgrims 
of Iowa, may their tribe increase!" 



Chapter XV 
"TWILIGHT AND EVENING BELL" 

The time for parting is now at hand. We have stood together 
for a little by the wayside, and watched the passing of the 
Pilgrims. The first brave souls, with toil and pain, trod 
through a wilderness, and with each traveler after adding help 
and cheer, they made the way, till, for the Pilgrims of today, 
a fair path stretches on through pleasant fields; while back 
along the winding caravan, float from the portals of the City 
snatches of the song of those first heroes as they enter in. 

Through all the decades we have seen our Pilgrim bands 
marching on to conquest, but, one by one, each marching on 
"to that bourne whence no traveler returns," — into the life 
eternal. 

11 Part of the host have crossed the flood 
And part are crossing now." 

The pioneers are all gone, the prospectors, the patriarchs, 
and now the last of the Iowa Band. 

One of the Band outlived the period this book was designed 
to cover, but now he, too, has passed away. There is no 
occasion to repeat at length the familiar story of the life of 
William Salter. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, 
November 17, 1821. He was educated in the schools of the 
city, and was graduated from the University of the City of 
New York. He was in Union Seminary for two years but 
graduated from Andover with the others of the Band in 1843. 
He was the youngest of the eleven and the longest in the field. 
He was one of the seven ordained at Denmark, November 5, 
1843. He was the first of the Band to organize a church. He 

313 



314 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

had two fields of labor. Doctor Robbins had but one, but 
Doctor Salter's pastorate of sixty-four years exceeded in length 
that of any other minister of any denomination in the West. 
It was a notable pastorate in other respects in that notable 
men of the state and country belonging to his parish were 
influenced by his life and teachings. He was a scholar and a 
writer of books; among them, the "Life of Governor Grimes/' 
"Life of Joseph Pickett," and "Iowa the First Free-State." 
He was a poet at heart and sometimes expressed himself in 
verse; he admired the great works of art, especially did he 
prize a noble hymn and he made choice collections of poetry 
and song. He had his own view of things and held stoutly 
to his own opinions, but he was a man of great catholicity of 
spirit, of the broadest charity. It required special grace on 
his part to consent to be a denominationalist at all, and he 
was a Congregationalist only because Congregationalism is 
not a sect but a spiritual brotherhood. Still he prized the 
fellowship of his Congregational brethren and joined heartily 
with them in all their denominational work. He was espe- 
cially cordial to young men coming into the ministry, and many 
a young minister has felt the thrill and inspiration of his cor- 
dial welcome. He entered into rest Monday, August 15, 1910. 
Perhaps Doctor Salter's most intimate ministerial comrade 
in the last decade of his life was Rev. Charles E. Perkins, 
of Keosauqua. They were drawn to each other in the bonds 
of mental and spiritual kinship. At the funeral the younger 
brother's tribute to the memory of his elder brother closes 
with these lines: 

"Years pass; and though all gently still 
The touch of time rests on that head, 
The ageing flesh hath weakened, till 
The feet move now with tottering tread 
The dimming eye, th' enfeebled voice, 
Proclaim the fateful hour drawn nigh, 
When, to all earthly works and joys, 
This strong, white soul must say, Good-bye. 



"TWILIGHT AND EVENING BELL" 315 

Ah, friend, death's coming brings no fears 
To thee, fast anchored in the faith 
That triumphs o'er the weight of years 
And waning strength and shortening breath. 
With patient trust thou waitest still, 
As thou hast trusted all thy days 
Resigned, whate'er thy Father's will; 
Thy mind yet buoyant with his praise. 

The last hour nears; hath come, hath gone! 
And ere the stroke dies on the air, 
Our friend's immortal part hath flown, 
And can we doubt or question where? 
Nay; heaven within his soul did dwell, 
What time he wrought so bravely here; 
Heaven maketh heaven. So, friend, farewell; 
We say it for thy sake, with cheer." 

Later in this year, 1910, October 29, Brother George H. 
White reaches the end of his long and useful life. He was 
born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, December 29, 1830, and 
graduated at Wabash College in 1852. He was a missionary 
of the American Board in Turkey from 1857-1863. He came 
to Iowa in 1872, and was pastor of the Chester Church from 
1872-1886. All the years of his retirement he lived in Grin- 
nell. The crowning pleasure of his life was the privilege of 
sending his son as a foreign missionary back to the land of his 
nativity. A man of the finest mental and spiritual texture, 
honest, sincere, devout, was this good man, George H. 
White. 

Of some of the old patriarchs now living Father G. G. Rice 
of the Missouri Slope, Frisbie, Snowden, Moulton, etc., we have 
already spoken. 

One of the old men of our fellowship is Brother Edward P. 
Kimball. He was born in Bath, New Hampshire, July 25, 
1819; graduated from Bangor Theological Seminary in 1850; 
came to Iowa in 1857, his fields Newton, Wilton, Monticello, 
Fairfax, Blairstown and Central City. When his time for 
retirement came, he moved to Waterloo, and there for years 



316 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

had sweet fellowship with M. K. Cross, Ephraim Adams and 
other saints of fewer years residing there. 

In Grinnell and in college circles generally, they call Pro- 
fessor Parker the "Grand Old Man." He came to Iowa in 
1856 arriving at Grinnell, as it now appears, to prepare the 
way for Iowa College. Teaching in the public school, he was 
on the ground to welcome the college from Davenport in 1859, 
and for eleven years, he was not indeed, the whole institution, 
but a very considerable part of it. From 1870 to 1888 he was 
professor of history at the State University, then returned to 
finish his course in Grinnell. It took him ten years more to 
earn the degree, "Professor Emeritus." He was ordained 
in 1862, not to be a pastor, for he was wedded to college work, 
but because he could preach, and because he would, and be- 
cause it was thought that with a "Reverend" attached to his 
name he could more fittingly represent the dignity of the col- 
lege. He has found abundant opportunity for the exercise 
of the preaching function; his educational and other addresses 
have run into the hundreds, and more numerous still are the 
productions of his pen. He is now writing a history of Powe- 
shiek County. We still call him the "old man eloquent." 

There are other candidates for patriarchal honors. W. L. 
Bray began life in England, spent his boyhood and began to 
preach in Wisconsin, came to Iowa, to Newton, in 1869. A 
forceful preacher, interesting and evangelistic, a live man from 
foot to crown, he has done us splendid service. In his minis- 
try he has received to church membership nine hundred and 
thirty-seven individuals, four hundred and ninety-eight of 
them in Iowa. He is growing old very slowly and very grace- 
fully. One would not think it, but he is seventy-eight; we 
must not expect much more of Brother Bray. 

Professor S. J. Buck came to Iowa in 1864. He came to 
teach, but he had a gospel message also, and served the young 
Chester Center church for three years, and was pastor at 
Gilman for seven years. His active professorship in Iowa 



FRANCIS FAWKES 



ANTON PAULU 





^fi 





D. G. YOUKER. J- H. HANSON 

REPRESENTATIVE HOME MISSIONARIES 



"TWILIGHT AND EVENING BELL" 317 

College covers a period of forty-one years; since 1905 he has 
been Professor Emeritus. His life has been one of mathemat- 
ical precision. For the most part he has kept his feet on the 
earth, and his head among the stars. No man has served the 
college more faithfully and loyally. He too will have a place 
in history as one of the builders of the commonwealth and of 
Congregational Iowa. 

Francis Fawkes began his life and his ministry as a lay 
preacher of the "Bible Christian Methodist Church" in Eng- 
land. In 1864 he came to Dubuque and was employed as 
a druggist's clerk. In 1865 he united with the Congregational 
church. The next year Superintendent Guernsey laid his 
hand upon him and said, "I want you for home missionary 
service." A more commanding voice was in that call, and it 
was the beginning of more than forty years of faithful, hum- 
ble, fruitful service, fifteen years at Durango and more than 
twenty-five at Otho. Retiring in 1904, Otho still retained 
him as pastor emeritus. I venture to-day to send the greeting 
of Congregational Iowa to Francis Fawkes: "Well done, 
good and faithful servant." 

Silas F. Millikan by antecedents hails from the Berkshire 
hills of Massachusetts, but selected Ohio as his birthplace, and 
took in Illinois on his way to Iowa. After thirty full, rich 
years of work in Iowa — forty-six in the ministry — he retired 
to be a "good parishioner" at Maquoketa, in the church where 
he had been pastor for thirteen years. He has always, and 
most rightfully, counted his wife as one with him in the service ; 
together they have raised up a royal family for the work of the 
Kingdom, to prolong their days of usefulness in the world. 
Brother Millikan writes : "We are both in our seventy-seventh 
year, but there is work for us both in the church and society. 
In the course of nature we may not have many years to spend 
in these pleasant surroundings, but we expect that our glori- 
ous Redeemer will, in his own good time, lift us to the man- 
sions prepared for those who love him." 



318 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Probably John Ogilvie Stevenson will not wish to be classed 
among the veterans, but he was born in 1841 and has been in 
Iowa for over thirty years, and a citizen of Waterloo for nearly 
a quarter of a century. He was one of our best preachers, and 
would be now had not his voice failed him. But he "had the 
pen of a ready writer,' ' and he makes an ideal State Registrar. 
An Association would scarce be an Association — or a confer- 
ence either — without J. 0. Stevenson. We hereby promise 
to support him in the office for another decade. A brother 
admired and beloved is he. 

For twenty-one years we wrote: "Youker of Gowrie" and 
we are writing it still. He began work here in 1875. Later 
he took on Manson, Center and Farnhamville, a field about 
thirty miles square. He was for eleven years pastor at Rock- 
well, then returned to his first love, retiring for old age only a 
few months ago. An evangelistic pastor, a revival preacher, 
terrible in his denunciations of sin, his voice sometimes "like 
the sound of many waters.' \ He once said to a man: "It 
will cost you $10,000 to be a Christian." Wrong-doers were 
afraid of him; yet he was gentle, kindly and loving as a neigh- 
bor, friend and brother. He has been one of Calhoun County's 
most distinguished citizens and one of her greatest forces for 
truth and righteousness. Without him our fellowship would 
not be perfect. 

We have long been looking for a good place to slip in the 
name of Brother John M. Cumings; here it is. He came to 
Iowa in 1853, not as a preacher exactly, for he was only five 
years of age, but he soon became the son of a preacher. He 
took his father's place at Percival in 1876, and since then he 
has been holding forth the word of life in Iowa churches. 
Most of his ministry has been up in the Sioux country, and 
on the Missouri slope, though he has just completed a nine 
years' pastorate with the "mother church" at Denmark. He 
has done faithful and efficient services everywhere, and every 
church has prospered under his administration. The mis- 



"TWILIGHT AND EVENING BELL" 319 

sionary cause was never forgotten where he was pastor, and 
benevolences have always increased under his hand. In the 
Iowa work he has filled his place, and filled it well. He is now 
at Farragut. 

Jacob Fath came to Iowa in 1854, a lad of fourteen. It has 
been said that in the war of the rebellion the Germans of the 
Mississippi Valley turned the tide of battle in favor of the 
North. Jacob Fath was one of them. In 1877 he returned to 
the fatherland; studied two years at Berne, and three at 
Strasburg; then, in 1882, he began at Muscatine his ministry 
of more than a quarter-century to the Germans of Iowa. With 
great gratitude of heart and much brotherly love we acknowl- 
edge the good work done by Brother Fath and the other 
German brethren in the making of Iowa and in the building 
of our Congregational Zion. 

It is claimed that Brother Leroy Hand's ordination, ante- 
dates that of any other man in active pastoral work in Iowa. 
Brother Ficke and Secretary Douglass were ordained the same 
year, 1868, but not so early as June. Brother Hand came to 
Iowa in 1870. Seven only of the intervening forty years have 
been spent out of the state. He has helped our work in a vari- 
ety of ways. He has organized new churches, built up old 
ones and brought them to self-support; he has erected houses 
of worship, built parsonages; aided in many councils; and 
strengthened the fellowship of associations. By his cheerful 
spirit, his sanity of judgment and irenic disposition he has 
exerted a helpful influence everywhere. As we count up our 
jewels, one of them we name Leroy S. Hand. 

Others there are who have given us many years of valuable 
service, of whom we would be glad to speak at length. John 
Wesley Ferner, of German antecedents, but a thorough going 
middle-west American in birth and education and character- 
istics, began with us at Prairie City in 1879. In 1910 he was 
still with us, though in the thirty years we loaned him for a 
little time to Missouri and Illinois, and now he has left us, for 



320 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

awhile, for work in Nebraska. He has grown to manhood, 
and to preacherhood in our service, and we count him also as 
one of our jewels. 

And there is our Quaker boy Addison D. Kinzer. He came 
in contact with Julian M. Sturtevant at Hannibal, Missouri. 
That fixed him for Congregationalism! His first work for us 
was among the freedmen of the South. He began in Iowa 
at Union in 1871. He was at Hampton for eleven years. 
Marion, Perry, Pilgrim Des Moines, and Lyons, were greatly 
profited by his ministrations. In 1905 he went to Washington 
to serve a little longer, and then to retire on his little fruit- 
ranch near Seattle. Thanks to him, and thanks to God, for 
his life work in Iowa ! 

It grieves me much to pass by the names of many noble 
workers of later advent who are now bearing the burden and 
heat of the day. As one notes such names as Breed, Brereton, 
Burling, Burleigh, Cushman, Day, Denney, Orville Douglass, 
Herr, Henderson, Hix, Hinman, Holmes, Johnson, all the 
Joneses, Locke, Minchin, Olmstead, Osborne, Rollins, the 
Smiths, Thompson, Tower, Willett, and some scores of others, 
it is hard to exclude them for the mere crime of not having 
arrived on time. Rest assured, brethren, that you are 
brothers beloved, one and all, and your work is appreciated, 
and, if you stay long enough, you may expect whole paragraphs 
or pages in the history which shall be written by another hand. 

A few more paragraphs will close the present volume. Sit- 
ting in the twilight and listening to the "chime of memory's 
bells," it would be pleasant to indulge in reveries, and call 
to mind the varied experiences of forty-three years of service 
in Iowa, from the "trial sermon" and the journey to Padan 
Aram, in 1868, to "the conclusion in 1907," and then "since I 
quit" until now. But perhaps it will be more fitting and prof- 
itable that the closing paragraphs of this book should be testi- 
monies to the "angels and messengers" and churches of our 
beloved Zion. 



"TWILIGHT AND EVENING BELL" 321 

In Doctor Salter's copy of the Iowa Band, on a blank leaf, 
written in his own hand, I find this record: 

The two surviving members of the Iowa Band, having been in attend- 
ance at the meeting of the State General Association in Des Moines, 
June 3-6, 1902, and being now present in the fifty-fifth year of Iowa Col- 
lege, June 10, 1902, at Grinnell, in the home of Horace Hutchinson Rob- 
bins with Gershom and James L Hill, sons of deceased members of the 
Band, and with Asa Turner, son of the Rev. Asa Turner, the patriarch 
of the Iowa churches, record their devout thanksgiving to God for the 
sacred memories of former years, and their younger brethren join them in 
their testimony to the God of their fathers, whose mercy is from ever- 
lasting to everlasting, and his righteousness unto children's children. 

These memorials to the faithfulness and mercy of the God 
of our fathers from generation to generation, "I would tran- 
scribe and make them mine." And I would add my testimony 
to the guiding hand of God in the affairs of men. Through the 
agency of Superintendent Guernsey I had a distinct call to 
Iowa; and I had a feeble call to Osage. I protested, but I 
went, moved by a volition not my own; and there I was held, 
in loving bonds, for fourteen years; then by a series of swiftly 
moving providences, wonderful and unmistakable, I was called 
to the home missionary field, and held to it for a quarter of a 
century; and I have almost learned to sing: 

"In each event of life how clear 
Thy ruling hand I see; 
Each blessing to my soul more dear 
Because conferred by thee;" 

and I can commend the testing of the promise, "In all thy 
ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." 

In these testimonies I wish to speak a good word for the 
Church, now discredited in many quarters. I do not care to 
debate the origin, the authority, or the efficiency of the Church, 
but I must record my conviction, growing with the years, that 
this unique institution is by the authority of Jesus Christ, 
embodied in the great commission, adapted to the world's needs 
in all the ages; that the hope of the world's salvation to-day is 

22 



322 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

in the Church, and that a man can best build the Kingdom, 
and build himself into the Kingdom by membership and serv- 
ice in the visible Church. Therefore, "let the people sing; 
let all the people sing," with new devotion and enthusiasm — 

"I love thy kingdom, Lord, 
The house of thine abode, 
The church our blest Redeemer saved 
With his own precious blood. 

I love thy church, O God! 
Her walls before thee stand, 
Dear as the apple of thine eye, 
And graven on thy hand. 

For her my tears shall fall; 

For her my prayers ascend; 

To her my cares and toils be given; 

Till toils and cares shall end." 

As a minister of the Church "I magnify my office. " If I 
could choose again, I would choose as I did in early manhood. 
I still count the ministry as the "high calling of God in Christ 
Jesus," a vocation of the highest honor, and furnishing the 
greatest opportunity for service. I had no disposition to dic- 
tate to God or to my children what their calling should be, but 
it has been a great delight to me all these years that two of 
them are ministers, and a third the presiding genius of a par- 
sonage. As I look at it no pastor is prepared for death until 
he has appointed his successor, and furnished one or more to 
take up his work when he lays it down. 

I would testify too, to the truth of the Old Testament prom- 
ise, "Trust in the Lord and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the 
land, and verily thou shalt be fed." The disciples, called to 
be fishers of men, found by the lakeside a fire they had not 
kindled, bread they had not provided, and fish they had not 
caught, and they heard the Master call, "Children, come and 
dine!" In that morning meal every minister of Christ may 
read his promise, "Forsaking all for this, I will see to it that 
you have your breakfast, and your dinner, and your supper, 



"TWILIGHT AND EVENING BELL" 323 

and your continual support." I have found it so, and so will 
you. I am rather glad to say that in all my ministry I have 
never set a price upon my labors. I have allowed others to 
name the salary, though I have more than once refused an 
increase. No minister can afford to be a stickler for his salary; 
better far to cast himself upon the Lord and upon his people. 
So shalt thou dwell in the parish, and verily thou shalt be fed. 

I must also bring in a vigorous testimony against the "place- 
seeker" and the "time-server." I think the Iowa ministry 
has been for the most part free from these twin vices. The 
pastor always looking for greener fields and pastures new is of 
little use. Not the place-seeker but the place-maker is the 
useful man. Once upon a time a young man took a little, 
undeveloped field in northern Iowa, and prospered in it. 
Later a brother minister, meeting him for the first time, said, 
"You've got a pretty good field up there, haven't you?" 
Before the young man could answer, the Superintendent of 
Home Missions responded for him, "Yes, but he made it." 
There is abundant opportunity still for place-making in Iowa. 

Once more I venture to harp upon the old string and plead 
for permanence. "Residence is capital." It is not always so 
but usually it is. The Iowa Band came saying, "Please God, 
we will spend our lives in Iowa," and they did it, and therefore 
Doctor Dunning could write, "It is not too much to say that 
their combined influence has given character, not only to the 
denomination in the state, but to the state itself." Possibly 
some of our pastorates have been too long, but the most of 
them have been too short, many of them so short that they 
might about as well not have been at all. The work of the 
men who flit from place to place and from state to state is 
hardly worth the counting. A good degree of permanence 
is absolutely essential to accomplishment of anything worth 
while. Five years' residence would not make a "Father 
Turner." Doctor Holbrook's great monument at Dubuque 
could not be erected in a pastorate of three or four years. One 



324 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

of our great needs to-day is that two or threescore of young 
men should come and give their hearts and their lives to Iowa. 
We have men of this sort, but not enough of them. 

I have already spoken in praise of our Iowa fellowship, so 
hearty, cordial, genuine, sincere, and democratic! Many 
coming from other communions and associations have pro- 
nounced it unique, and others, passing on have looked back 
to it with longing as for something lost. Some years ago 
Brother Robert L. Marsh, coming from another state, began 
to look about for "the ring." He supposed that of course there 
was a "ring," and he said "Of course, Douglass is in it, and 
Frisbie is in it — but how adroit these fellows; their machina- 
tions are past finding out!" Finally he concluded there was 
no ring; and there was not, and there never has been, and, 
God grant there may never be, but that ever we may be true to 
our Congregational motto and charter, "One is your Master, 
even Christ, and all ye are brethren." 

The fellowship expressed in special occasions, such as anni- 
versary celebrations, has a flavor all its own. People then 
feel at liberty to speak out their affections as they ordinarily 
do not permit themselves to do. Our silver wedding at Osage 
is an illustration. The twenty-fifth anniversary of our home 
missionary service is another. And there were other occasions 
in which we have heard words spoken which it is not lawful 
for man to hear, except from under the coffin lid. Now and 
then we practice the sentiment: 

" 'Twere better to send a cheap bouquet 
To a living friend this very day, 
Than a bushel of roses, white and red, 
To lay on his coffin when he is dead." 

Some of us feel that we had our bushel of roses long ago. I 
wish here to testify to the end of time, at least so far as this 
book can carry it, to the kindness and goodness of the people 
of Osage, our only parish, and of the people of Congregational 
Iowa to me and mine. The favors received are far beyond the 



" TWILIGHT AND EVENING BELL'' 325 

merit of the services. But this is our Congregational Iowa 
way. At least now and then, as occasion offers, the spirit of 
fellowship expresses itself in loving words as well as kindly- 
deeds. 

And now my closing testimony is to the coming of the 
Kingdom. "The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard 
seed" a perpetual promise of perpetual growth. The prayer 
of the Lord, and of the Christian ages, "Thy kingdom come" 
is being answered. "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the 
coming of the Lord"; I have seen the new Jerusalem coming 
down from God out of heaven. I have caught glimpses of the 
omnipotent Christ seated on the circle of the heavens, "on his 
vesture and on his thigh this name written, King of kings and 
Lord of lords"; and I know that "He will not fail, neither will 
he be discouraged," until he completes the work to which he 
has set his hand in "equity and righteousness." We fail, 
churches fail, nations fail; Jesus fails never; we get discour- 
aged, churches get discouraged, nations get discouraged; 
Jesus never gets discouraged. He knows what he is about; 
he sees the end from the beginning; he is the great leader of 
the "sacramental host of God's elect." He holds in his right 
hand "the seven stars" and "the seven spirits of God"; all 
spiritual agencies and influences are under his control, and the 
issue is not doubtful. 

"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmov- 
able, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch 
as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord." 



Chapter XVI 
THE CHURCHES IN A NUTSHELL 

It is great pity that we must crowd the great histories of 
our churches into the little nutshells of this chapter. Sug- 
gestions of what might be written of many of these churches 
may be found in the things that have been written concern- 
ing some of them in preceding chapters. 

The list, alphabetically arranged, with dates of organiza- 
tions, names of pastors, etc., is substantially complete, only 
a few being omitted, and those of no significance. The num- 
ber of the list is four hundred and seventy-one. 

No doubt those familiar with the churches of the state will 
be surprised at the number of unfamiliar names here recorded. 
More than one-third of these churches are not now in existence. 
Some never had anything more than a name to live. Some 
died in good health and without cause or reason excepting 
unwillingness to bear the responsibilities of life. Many that 
dropped out by the way justified themselves in their living, 
and in their dying too. Some died to live in other churches, 
sometimes in churches of other names. The loss by death 
is not nearly as great as appearances would seem to indicate. 
This list of churches, names of pastors, and dates of dedications 
represent decades and even centuries of consecrated toil and 
sacrifice with great forces intellectual, moral and spiritual, 
working for the making of the commonwealth, the leaven- 
ing of the nation, and the saving of the world. 

Adelphi: Organized November 17, 1906. Pastors: H. H. Long and 
R. C. Helfenstein. Dedication May 5, 1905. 

Agency: May 10, 1844. B. A. Spaulding, 1843-1850. Disbanded 1850. 
Reorganized November 25, 1865, E. E. Webber, pastor. Disbanded 
in 1867 and again reorganized July 11, 1895. Allen Clark, Eva K, 
Miller, D. M. Lower. Dedication September 6, 1903, 

326 



THE CHURCHES IN A NUTSHELL 327 

Alden: July 18, 1866. H. S. Thompson, W. J. Smith, H. H. Robbins, 
Charles Hancock, T. J. Reid, F. G. Webster, M. Mooney, F. B. Noyes, 
J. A. Miller, J. B. Chase, C. N. Lyman, A. Fisher, M. Lambley, G. L. 
Marsh, N. P. Olmstead and A. G. Axtell. Dedications: Fall of 
1867 and November 25, 1900. 

Alexander: October 5, 1897. S. A. Martin, C. A. Chambers, B. W. Nor- 
throp, W. G. Marts, W. R. McLaine and G. R. Parker. Dedication 
July 21, 1907. 

Albia: May 11, 1869. Survived only three years. M. Rowley, pastor 
one year. 

Algona: August 15, 1858. Chauncey Taylor, 1856-1873. H. B. Under- 
wood, W. H. Burnard (1875-1888), William Davidson, 1888-1896, 
C. E. Sinclair, W. J. Suckow, O. H. Holmes, 1902—. Dedications: 
September, 1868 and June, 1886. 

Allison: July 21, 1887. John Gray, W. S. Hamlin, H. C. Calhoun, J. S. 
Norris, W. B. Sanford, H. C. Brown, W. G. Little, W. D. King, F. A. 
Slyfield, V. B. Hill, W. H. Walcott, W. U. Parks. Dedication Decem- 
ber 8, 1889. 

Almoral: March 26, 1857. H. N. Gates and J. H. Kasson, 1857-1860; 
(then yoked with Earlville Church). Meetings in schoolhouse until 
February 8, 1903. 

Alpha: August 12, 1891. Yoked with Waucoma. Disbanded, 1904. 

Alton: June 24, 1890. J. C. Ablett, H. G. Cooley, A. P. Solandt, Thomas 
Gales, C. H. Moxie, W. L. Bray. Dedication September, 1891 — •. 

Alvord: November 22, 1891. Yoked with Larchwood and Doon. J. E. 
Janson, 1907 — . Dedication January 8, 1893. 

Ames: November 5, 1865. John White, Simeon Gilbert, A. A. Baker, 
G. G. Perkins, W. P. Bennett, E. C. Moulton, J. D. Wells, F. J. Doug- 
lass, H. P. Douglass, C. H. Seccombe, H. D. Herr and W. J. Minchin. 
Dedications: October 8, 1866 and March 18, 1900. 

Anamosa: (originally Big Woods). November 14, 1846. Alfred Wright, 
E. O. Bennett, H. W. Strong, S. P. LaDue, S. A. Benton, O. W. Merrill, 
William Patten, R. M. Sawyer, J. B. Fiske, 1872-1888, W. W. Willard, 
E. W. Beers, W. J. Stewart, S. F. Millikan, 1893-1902, J. M. McLaren, 
O. O. Stevens, C. H. Beaver, 1905—. Dedications in 1851, 1864 
and 1904. 

Andrew: (Cottonville) December 26, 1841. O. Emerson, William Salter, 
W. A. Kieth, W. L. Coleman, S. D. Helms and T. H. Canfield. Dis- 
banded 1873. 

Anita: April 12, 1870. C. D. Wright, C. D. Irwin, A. A. Whitmore, S. D. 
Smith, C. H. Mcintosh, J. M. Cummings, E. P. Childs, J. T. Marvin, 
E. H. Votaw, W. A. Schwimley, F. H. Bohn and Charles Cushman. 
Dedications in 1876 and 1905. 



328 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Ankeny: February 15, 1898. Joseph Steele, 1898-1909, M. E. Bachman, 

1909-1911. Dedicated November 27, 1898. 
Arion: June 5, 1903. A. W. McNeal, A. E. Bashford, J. H. Friedline, 

E. C. Walcott, Robert Rigsby, C. E. Walsh and E. D. Calkins. Dedi- 
cation December 18, 1904. 

Ashton: March 2, 1899. W. L. Brintnall supplied for a year; church soon 
after disbanded. 

Atlantic: April 10, 1869. E. S. Hill, 1869-1905, A. S. Henderson, 1905- 
1910, H. O. Spellman 1910—. Dedications August 15, 1869 and Decem- 
ber 15, 1889. 

Aurelia: April 22, 1883. J. B. Chase, D. E. Skinner, J. W. Taylor, Charles 
Wyatt, Geo. H. Smith, B. L. Webber, G. E. Stump, Richard Watt, 
S. J. Huffman, C. H. Moxie. Dedications November 30, 1884 and May 
12, 1907. 

Avoca: June 12, 1870. C. D. Wright, George Hindley, Joel Sabin, G. G. 
Perkins, John Gray, D. M. Hartsough, J. H. Skiles, W. E. Reed, 
J. W. Clark, A. T. Irvine, J. B. Williams, J. M. Blanchard, C. E. Cush- 
man, C. T. Halbert, J. M. Turner, C. T. Shaw, C. H. Moxie and J. E. 
Grinnell. Dedication spring of 1875. 

Avoca German: February 10, 1891. John Shearer, John Single, Jacob 
Morach, F. Satler and F. Worth. Dedication August 5, 1894. 

Bartlett: June 30, 1867. F. M. Piatt, pastor. Yoked with Pacific. Sur- 
vived only two or three years. 

Bassett: June 1, 1890. Yoked with Ionia. Dedication August 9, 1891. 

Baxter: November 15, 1885. Thomas Merrill, W. W. Hazen, W. L. 
Brandt, J. P. Dyas, G. L. Shull, C. E. Tower, J. M. Cummings, E. R. 
McCorkle, M. C. Haecker, J. R. Beard, B. C. Tillett, L. D. Blanford 
and S. E. Long. Dedications July 11, 1886 and October 14, 1900. 

Beacon: January 2, 1874. C. D. Jones, I. C. Hughes, I. M. Jones, James 
Harrison, C. W. Evans. 

Bear Grove: March 22, 1874. A. A. Whitmore, Charles Little, J. H. 
Skiles, A. Clark, B. Mather, R. W. Harris, B. F. Meyer, W. D. King, 

F. T. Lansborough, James Kirkwood, B. J. Rhodes and G. H. Rawson. 
Bedford: February 7, 1883. Had only two years of life. G. S. Bradly, 

pastor 1883-1884. 
Belle Plaine: July 31, 1866. S. P. La Due, D. Lane, J. Wadhams, M. Mes- 

mer, A. E. Everest, O. C. Dickerson, W. H. Ambrose, A. F. Loomis, 

C. H. Bissell, Robert Stapleton, A. H. Sedgewick, F. E. Drake, R. S. 

Osgood and F. C. Henry. Dedications, May, 1870 and February 25, 

1906. 
Belmond: March 3, 1867. P. Harrison, E. C. Miles, J. D. Sands, 1869- 

1903 and Emeritus until death in 1909, A. L. Dunton, W, XL Parks and 



THE CHURCHES IN A NUTSHELL 329 

Paul W. Jones. Dedications December 31, 1882 and November 12, 

1905. 
Bellvue: July 10, 1847. Occasional supplies before organization: Aratus 

Kent, 0. Emerson, J. C. Holbrook, W. Salter and William Keith. 

Pastors, W. L. Coleman, 1847-1856, T. H. Canfield, E. Clark, L. Jones, 

E. P. Whiting, J. Gilman, William Chappie, D. M. Breckenridge, W. 

H. Klose, G. W. Sargent, J. M. Turner, D. W. Blakely, E. P. Crane 

and C. A. Chambers. 
Bentonsport: May 14, 1843. E. Ripley, A. B. Dilly, O. French, H. H. 

Hayes, J. D. Sands, Harvey Adams and Asa Farwell, 1844r-1871. Only 

occasional services since 1871. 
Berlin: February 22, 1806. Yoked with Dinsdale. Dedication, January 

10, 1904. 
Berwick: July 13, 1886. Developed from a Union church. C. E. Blod- 

gett, M. D. Archer, W. R. Griffith, Joseph Steele, E. C. Chevis, N. H. 

May, T. B. Couchman, and E. A. Elliott. Inherited church building; 

improved and rededicated November 4, 1906. 
Beulah: March 5, 1900. Yoked with Madison County First. 
Bethel, Clay Co.: July 25, 1886. Yoked with Peterson. Dedicated, 

November 7, 1886. Disbanded 1904. 
Bethel, Clayton Co. : January 22, 1905. Came from Cumberland Presby- 
terian. Yoked with Colesburg. 
Bethel, Cerro Gordo Co. : 1889. Yoked with Clear Lake. Disbanded, 1897. 
Big Rock: May 23, 1856. O. Emerson, J. R. Upton, O. Littlefield, S. N. 

Grant, George Smith, A. W. Allen, George Ritchie, R. Apthorp, W. L. 

Coleman, A. Graves, I. N. Tomes, A. S. Willoughby, Q. C. Todd, 

Charles Wyatt, F. D. Adams, L. R. Fitch, N. W. Wehrhan, L. Coylin 

and F. S. Perry. 
Black Hawk: January 16, 1862. Yoked with Fairfield. No pastor after 

1877. Disbanded 1886. 
Blencoe: March 23, 1877. C. N. Lyman, 1877-1891, P. B. West, W. G. 

Little, A. G. Washington, W. E. Sauerman, C. A. Burdick and F. S. 

Perry. Mostly supplied from Onawa. 
Blairsburg: August 1, 1891. From Wesleyan Methodists. H. Paul Doug- 
lass, summer of 1891. T. G. Lewis, Julius Marks, A. W. Moore, B. F. 

Myers, C. T. Halbert, B. J. Rhodes and G. A. Putnam. Dedication, 

December 27, 1896. 
Bloomfield: November 21, 1870. Thomas Merrill, J. W. Horner, Thomas 

Baskerville. Disbanded, 1885. 
Bondurant: December 4, 1891. H. H. Long, H. W. Rose, G. W. Tingle, 

B. C. Tillett, G. O. Long, H. C. Rosenberger. Dedication, January 

28, 1894 r 



330 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Boonsboro: January 7, 1866. O. C. Dickerson, 1865-1870 and 1876-1879. 
Others, A. H. Post, and J. W. White. Disbanded in 1884. 

Bowen's Prairie: March 23, 1853. Thomas H. Canfield, C. S. Cady, M. C. 
Searle, Isaac Russell, H. S. Thompson, J. T. Clossen and Harvey Adams. 
No pastor after 1882. Disbanded 1893. 

Bradford: November 4, 1855. O. Littlefield, J. C. Strong, J. K. Nutting, 
R. J. Williams, A. Graves, L. D. Boynton; occasional supplies from 
Nashua since 1877. Sunday School kept up. Dedication, December 
29, 1864. 

Brighton: May 31, 1841. Charles Burnham, F. A. Armstrong, B. Rob- 
erts, J. E. McMurray, L. R. White, S. Hemminway, Gordon Hayes, 
T. N. Skinner, T. H. Holmes, James Barnett, M. M. Thompson, Francis 
Lawson, H. A. Risser, E. P. Crane. Disbanded in 1894. 

Britt: December 26, 1879. R. R. Wood, Benjamin St. John, F. M. Cooley, 
H. N. Laurence, Q. C. Todd, W. R. Stewart, J. C. Stoddard, F. G. 
Wilcox, C. G. Marshall and B. Greenaway. Dedications (first date 
lost) and November 24, 1895. 

Britt Scand.: December 4, 1891. C. O. Torgeson, Julius Bing, F, O. 
Anderson, Hans Brooks, Jens H. Pedersen and Chas. E. Nelson. Dedi- 
cation March 15, 1896. 

Brookfield, Clinton Co.: February 7, 1858. W. A. Keith, C. S. Cady, 
1857-1868 and then disappears. 

Burr Oak, Winnesheik Co.: March 10, 1850. George Bent, 1860-1870, 
C. A. Marshall, H. B. Lamb and C. W. Wiley, the last pastor, closing 
in 1879. Disbands 1885. Dedication, January 1864. 

Buckeye: November 19, 1893. Yoked with Alden. C. N. Lyman, 1893- 
1898. Later J. B. Bickford and A. G. Axtell and other supplies. Dedi- 
cation November 19, 1893. 

Buffalo Grove: October 11, 1857. I. Russell, G. Gemmel, William Spell, 
and W. L. Brintnall, 1857-1870. Reorganized as the Buffalo Church, 
May 1, 1870. Brintnall, pastor, 1870-1873, 1875-1878, 1879-1883. 
No report after 1883. 

Buffalo Center: September 18, 1892. H. N. Lawrence, Abi L. Nutting, 
N. L. Packard, A. W. McNeal, C. B. Olds, I. K. Bickford and F. C. 
Gonzales. Dedicated June 18, 1893. 

Burdette: December 26, 1894. Yoked one year with Alden and then with 
Popejoy. 

Burlington: December 26, 1894. Various supplies 1838-1843. Pastors 
for sixty-seven years only Horace Hutchinson and William Salter. 
Associate pastors, 1882-1910, William Buss, G. D. Herron, F. N. 
White, R. L. Marsh and Nathan Osborne. Dedications, December 
29, 1846, December 25, 1870 and November 18, 1900. 



THE CHURCHES IN A NUTSHELL 331 

Carnforth: December 1, 1895. Yoked with Victor. Dedicated Dec. 31, 

1899. 
Carroll: November 26, 1872. N. D. Porter and G. W. Palmer, 1874- 

1877. Church survived only five years. 
Cass: June 14, 1856. S. P. La Due, S. A. Benton, C. S. Cady, B. Roberts, 

D. Savage, C. C. Humphrey, W. W. Hayward, W. H. Barrows, James 
Mitchell, George Ritchie, M. Amsden, D. N. Bordwell, A. B. Keeler, 
H. M. Pinkerton, George Brimacombe and W. R. Bundy. House 
erected in 1860. 

Cascade: January 28, 1844. E. B. Turner and Robert Stuart, 1843-1852. 

Disbanded in 1859. 
Casey: July 12, 1871. A. A. Whitmore for two years. Disbanded, 1880. 
Castana: August 14, 1886. C. N. Lyman, S. D. Horine, J. M. Turner, 

F. C. Lewis, J. E. Grinnell, James Holden. United with other Castana 

churches since 1907. Dedication, January 23, 1887. 
Castleville: May, 1891. Yoked with Winthrop. Dedicated October 11, 

1891. 
Cedar Falls : July 8, 1860. L. B. Fifield, 1860-1870. Charles Gibbs, 1870, 

1887, S. J. Beach, 1887-1897; J. E. Snowden, 1897-1910 and E. E. Day. 

First church purchased from the Methodists; Second dedication, 

July 8, 1889. 
Ceda Rapids First: First organization from 1857-1867. Supplied in 

part from Marion. Present church organized May 15, 1879. A. T. 

Reed, S. J. Rogers, E. E. P. Abbott, E. M. Vittum, G. R. Dickinson, 

E. A. Berry, J. P. Huget and Wilson Denney. Buildings dedicated 
February 10, 1881 and November 14, 1889. 

Cedar Rapids Bethany: June 5, 1893. Supplied as a mission before organ- 
ization, C. H. Morse, S. J. Malone and C. E. McKinley. Pastors, 
L. W. WJnslow, J. B. Gonzales, W. J. Warner, W. Altvater, Vinton Lee 
and B. H. Morse. Dedication, July 23, 1905. 

Center: July 2, 1882. Yoked with Manson. Dedication, August 8, 1897. 

Centerdale: November 4, 1903. J. W. Holoway, R. E. Roberts, J. J. 
Hales, W. T. Seeley and H. H. Hines. Dedicated, April 1, 1906. 

Center Point: May 2, 1873. Charles Dane, G. C. Lockridge, C. E. Marsh, 
Will am Jones, M. S. Croswell, Q. C. Todd, J. S. Malone and W. G. 
Johnston. No pastor after 1892 Disbanded, 1899. 

Centerville: December 31, 1898. Developed from a Free Mission Church, 
organized in 1887. N. J. Bolin, C. W. Peterson, C. M. Anderson and 
J. H. Hanson. Dedication, November 25, 1906. 

Central City: December 19, 1858. A. Manson, O. Littlefield, E. C. Downs, 
William Spell, E. D. Kimball, E. E. Webber, J. Alderson, P. Litts, 
E. P. Crane, J. D. Mason, J. T, Mumford, D. D. Tibbetts, B. C, Tillett, 



332 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

F. W. Pease, E. R. McCorkle and J. F. Smith. Dedication, October 
15, 1882. 

Chapin: November 28, 1858. W. P. Avery, eighteen years, N. T. Blakes- 
ley, A. D. Kinzer of Hampton eleven years, J. M. Turner, P. Litts, W. A. 
Brintnall, Philo Gorton, N. E. Hannant, A. J. Williams, F. O. Wyatt, 
J. W. Larkin, Nelson Wehrhan, W. W. Tuttle and Mrs. A. Blandford. 
Dedication, November 23, 1890. 

Charles City: November 31, 1856. J. H. Windsor, W. A. Adams, D. N. 
Bordwell, H. B. Woodworth, J. A. Cruzan, J. Wadhams, N. M. Clute, 
H. N. Hoyt, A. G. Brande, Charles Noble, F. S. June, C. C. Otis, 
Wilson Denney, 1898-1907, W. J. Cady. Dedications, January 29, 
1868 and March 11, 1911. 

Cherokee: June 12, 1870. W. F. Rose, F. Herd, F. M. Cooly, J. B. Chase, 
Charles Bissell, W. A. Evans, W. L. Ferris, 1889-1902, H. D. Hunter, 
R. W. Purdue and E. S. Carr. Dedications, March 22, 1874 and 
February 25, 1900. 

Chester Center: June 25, 1865. C. W. Clapp, S. J. Buck, G. F. Magoun, 

G. H. White, 1872-1889, G. H. Sharpley, W. H. Atkinson, J. J. Mitchell, 
J. K. Shultz, James Rowe, T. B. Couchman, J. C. Jewell and H. L. 
Wissler. Building erected in 1868. 

Cincinnati: August 19, 1867. J. C. Cooper, D. B. Eells, W. W. Pennell, 
A. S. Elliott, Thomas Baskerville, Chas. S. Newcomb, F. C. Emerson, 
C. C. Humphrey, John Croker, E. E. Preston, F. C. Hoover, W. E. 
Sauerman, G. E. Crossland, R. W. Hughes, H. L. Wissler and A. G. 
Heddle. Longest pastorate five years. 

Clay: July 3, 1842. Charles Burnham, B. Roberts, R. Hunter, J. R. 
Kennedy, T. H. Holmes, 1865-1872, D. B. Eells, H. P. Robinson, 
James Barnett, W. Radford, M. M. Thompson, F. Lawson, Charles 
Little, E. P. Crane, J. Kidder, A. Teuber, S. A. Arnold, P. H. Fisk, 
R. F. Lavender, F. A. Zickefoose, L. S. Hand, E. H. Albright. Church 
erected 1858; second dedication, October 16, 1902. 

Clarion: November 12, 1872. J. D. Sands, W. W. Mead, E. P. Childs, 
W. R. Stewart, H. P. Fisher, A. S. Houston, E. Ewell, S. J. Beach and 
J. H. Olmstead. Buildings erected in 1883 and 1900. 

Chickasaw: January 13, 1892. Yoked with Ionia and Bassett. Dis- 
banded in 1900. 

Clear Lake, Hamilton Co. Apparently organized in 1858. In 1859 had 
a pastor, T. N. Skinner, and joined the Northwestern Association. 
Disappeared in 1860. 

Clear Lake, Cerro Gordo Co.: September 12, 1870. Supplies before 
organization, T. Tenney and J. D. Mason. Pastors, A. S. Allen, R. R. 
Wood, A. M. Case, D, A. Cutler, J. D. Mason, T. H ? Guynne, F, Q, 



THE CHURCHES IN A NUTSHELL 333 

Hicks, F. E. Carter, J. W. Hayward, J. F. Moore and J. R. Henderson. 
Buildings erected 1877 and 1894. 

Cleveland First and Second, Welsh Churches: Organized 1878 and 1884. 
Soon died. 

Cliffland: April, 1896. Yoked with Agency. Disbanded 1908. 

Climbing Hill: 1889-1893 the bounds of its life. Yoked with Oto. 

Clinton: June 5, 1866. J. W. White, J. L. Ewell, W. L. Bray, C. A. 
Marshall, Wilson Denney, F. L. Kenyon, E. Moore, J. M. Hulburt, 
E. B. Dean, C. F. Fisher and R. T. Jones. Dedication, September, 1867. 

College Springs (Amity) : November 12, 1865. B. F. Hoskins, C. C. Hum- 
phrey, D. R. Barker, W. I. Phillips, H. Avery, 1878-1888, W. H. Hilton, 
I. O. Stone, H. W. Mote, H. M. Burr, A. R. Dodd and J. K. Nutting. 
Dedicated, October, 1870. 

Colesburg (Colony) : December 5, 1846. E. B. Turner, 1846-1856, J. B. 
Parlin, L. P. Mathews, Amos Jones, Alexander Kaye, C. E. Marsh, 
D. D. Kidd, A. Doremus, 0. M. Humphrey, F. M. Tyrell, E. M. Keeler, 
W. H. GifFord. Dedications, November 3, 1849 and November 14, 
1875. 

Columbus City: October 25, 1846. A. L. Leonard, David Knowles, E. O. 
Bennett, D. E. Jones, Robert Hunter, F. Crang, J. E. Elliott. Dis- 
banded in 1876. 

Conover: March 23, 1866. George Conley and Charles Hancock. Dis- 
banded in 1869. 

Copper Creek, Jackson Co.: January 28, 1854. One of Father Emerson's 
churches. Supplied from Sabula and Elk River. Disbanded in 1866. 

Corning: January 9, 1870. S. Barrows, E. G. Carpenter, Charles Little, 
S. J. Beach, J. F. Toby, Q. C. Todd, G. A. Coleman, F. S. June, 0. P. 
Champlin, B. F. Barker, A. M. Beaman, J. T. Marvin, E. C. Moulton, 
P. H. Mason, C. A. Haskett, A. G. Graves and C. G. Marshall. Dedi- 
cations, February 12, 1871 and March 17, 1901. 

Correctionville: December 20, 1891. W. R. Smith, E. A. Powell, J. B. 
Chase, R. F. Paxton, J. T. Mumford, Jesse Povey, W. A. Hanson, 
M. D. Smith. Dedication, October 15, 1893. 

Council Bluffs First: June 2, 1853. G. G. Rice, J. S. Haskell, H. Adams, 
W. W. Allen, J. B. Chase, H. P. Roberts, H. S. DeForest, Cyrus Hamlin, 
G. W. Crofts, J. Askins, J. W. Wilson, James Thompson and O. O. 
Smith. First building, church and parsonage combined; second, log 
cabin; third, brick dedicated July 6, 1856; fourth, dedicated March 3, 
1870. 

Council Bluffs, People's Church : April 20, 1903. J. P. Burkhardt, E. Potter, 
C. S. Hanley, 

Crane Creek: 1889. Yoked with Elma. Disbanded in 1897. 



334 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Crawfordsville: April 3, 1842. Charles Burnham, Charles Granger, A. L. 
Leonard, D. Knowles, W. A. Westervelt, E. 0. Bennett, W. Coe, E. P. 
Smith, S. V. McDuffee, L. S. Hand, L. T. Rowley, 1872-1882, D. P. 
Rathburn. Dropped in 1888. 

Cresco: September, 1856. Former names: Vernon Springs and New 
Oregon. Father Windsor, 1856-1866 and 1868-1871, S. D. Peet, E. 
Southworth, A. S. McConnell, 1876-1890, W. H. Kaufman, James 
Oakey, J. H. Boggess, O. H. Holmes, 1896-1902, J. H. Eakin and J. J. 
Hinman. Dedications, November 17, 1861 and January 21, 1900. 

Creston: January 28, 1873. N. H. Calhoun, N. H. Whittlesey, 1875-1887, 
A. J. Van Wagner, D. P. Breed, E. E. Flint, F. J. Hanscom. Dedica- 
tions, June 11, 1874 and September 2, 1888. 

Creston Pilgrim: April 18, 1875. N. H. Whittlesey, W. C. Bosworth, 
M. T. Ranier, A. E. Mosher, J. R. Beard, A. S. Willoughby, W. E. 
Todd, G. C. Jewell, Wm. W. Schumaker, F. A. Hinman and George 
Milne. 

Crocker: November 3, 1901. Yoked with Ankeney, Joseph Steele and 
Polk City, J. H. Mintier. Dedicated, November 22, 1905. 

Crocker Center: Organized in 1886. Yoked with Polk City, R. W. 
Hughes and R. F. Lavender. Disbanded, 1889. 

Cromwell, March 23, 1870. E. G. Carpenter, Charles Little, W. L. Bartle, 
C. O. Parmeter, C. H. Eaton, A. Thompson, D. D. Tibbetts, R. W. 
Jamison, C. C. Humphrey, W. C. Hicks, L. S. Kirnen, J. T. Mumford, 
L. E. Patten, J. B. Staunton, E. R. McCorkle, James Kirkwood. Dedi- 
cations, December 6, 1876 and December 11, 1892. 

Danville: June 30, 1839. Reuben Gaylord, 1839-1856, A. L. Leonard, 
E. P. Smith, 1868-1878, J. D. Baker, D. B. Davidson, L. T. Rowley, 
1884-1895, C. R. Shatto, G. D. Tangeman, C. E. Drew, C. F. Sheldon 
and W. H. Bickers. Building erected in 1847 and 1868. 

Davenport First: July 30, 1839. J. P. Stewart, O. Emerson, A. B. Hitch- 
cock, E. Adams, 1844-1855, G. F. Magoun. Reorganized as Ed- 
wards Church August 16, 1871. William Windsor, J. A. Hamilton, 
J. G. Merrill, 1872-1882, M. L. Williston, A. W. Archibald, B. F. Boiler, 
G. S. Rollins, 1894-1903, C. A. Moore and W. J. Suckow. Dedicated, 
October 27, 1841. Edwards dedicated December 26, 1873 and Sunday 
School annex, November 4, 1900. 

Davenport German: February 19, 1857. A. Frowein, H. Langpaap, J. F. 
Graff, 1864-1873, Jacob Reuth, F. W. Judeisch, 1874-1888, Carl 
Hess, A. K. Resner, A. T. Hertel, C. F. Finger, Philip Schmidt, B. R. 
Bauman, John Strohecker and William Loos. Dedicated, December 
21, 1902. United with Bethlehem in Berea Church, R. K. Atkinson, 
pastor in 1909. 



THE CHURCHES IN A NUTSHELL 335 

Davenport Bethlehem, Mission of Edwards: organized February 4, 1894. 
Services held by pastors of German Church, 1888-1894. Pastors 
after 1894, Andrew Orth, T. O. Douglass, Jr., S. H. Seccombe, J. H. 
Wilson and R. K. Atkinson. Merged with the German Church into 
Berea, 1909. 

Davenport Berea: 1909. R. K. Atkinson, pastor. 

Decorah: June 25, 1854. William Keith, E. Adams, 1857-1872, H. B. 
Woodworth, Jesse Taintor, John Willard, J. B. Bidwell, D. L. Hilliard 
and since 1896, Mahlon Willitt. Dedicated, November 17, 1861 and 
February 16, 1896. 

Denmark: May 5, 1838. First Congregational Church in Iowa. Asa 
Turner, 1838-1868, E. Y. Swift, 1868-1882, W. E. DeReimer, Charles 
Hancock, A. K. Fox, H. L. Marsh, F. E. Kenyon, E. Ewell, J. M. 
Cumings, 1901-1910. Houses of worship erected 1838, 1846 and 
1864. 

Des Moines Plymouth: December 7, 1857. J. T. Cook, J. M. Chamber- 
lain, H. S. DeForest, A. L. Frisbie, 1871-1898 and still Emeritus, 
F. J. VanHorn, F. W. Hodgdon, 1903-1911. Buildings, 1858, 1877 
and 1902. 

Des Moines Moriah: 1878. Welsh pastors, J. T. Owens, 1879-1881; no 
further record until 1890. English pastors, W. A. Black, Virgil Hill, 
R. C. Moulton, Joseph Williams and Miss Elverda Pugh. 

Des Moines Pilgrim: July 2, 1883. S. S. Grinnell, A. W. Safford, A. D. 
Kinzer, C. Douglass, J. F. Fetterholf, J. B. Losey and Arthur Metcalf . 
Dedications, December 14, 1884 and October 6, 1889. 

Des Moines North Park: January 5, 1885. B. St. John, 1884-1898, J. S. 
Colby, John Comin, F. W. Stephens, T. O. Douglass, Jr. Dedica- 
tion, September 16, 1888. 

Des Moines German: October 20, 1892. Jacob Henn, Otto Gerhardt, 
J. P. Wilhelme, J. H. Kramer. Dedication, October, 1 1893. Dis- 
banded in 1904. 

Des Moines Greenwood: June 13, 1898. C. C. Harrah, D. B. Spencer, 
W. C. Stone, F. G. Beardsley, H. C. Rosenberger and J. P. Burling. 
Dedication, December 4, 1898. 

Des Moines Union: December 18, 1903. H. W. Porter and J P. Sims. 
Dedicated, December 20, 1908. 

DeWitt: July 10, 1842. O. Emerson, S. J. Francis, S. J. Mowrey, J. Van 
Anthwerp, 1857-1871, Rufus Apthorp, E. P Whiting, J. W. Hubbard, 
Jesse Taintor, C. H. Cook, D. S. Jenkins, William Chappie, F. H. York, 
E. P. Crane, C. E. Sinclair, A. W. Depew, T. R. Ewell, F A. Dean, 
J. J. Mitchell and William Gardner. Church buildings erected in 1853, 
1865 and 1888. 



336 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Dickens: October 14, 1894. Jesse C. George, A. J. Benton, C. G. Marshall, 

C W. Anthony, C. G. Oxley, J. T. Steele, C. S. Marsolf. Dedication, 

September 8, 1895. 
Dinsdale: July 13, 1891. Robert Munby, A. W. McNeal, F. E. Matlock, 

P. Litts, W. R. Bundy and J. L. Martin. Dedication, December 20, 

1891. 
Doon: December 10, 1889. L. R. Fitch, Charles Wyatt, H. W. Mercer, 

H. W. Jones, W. L. Brandt, S. A. Wheelwright, W. W. Hartsough, 

D. E. Skinner, W. J. Watt, C. F. Shaw, J. H. Barnett and F. H. Rich- 
ardson. Dedicated, February, 1900. 

Dubuque First: May 12, 1839. Prospectors, Cyrus L. Watson, J. A. 
Clarke, Z. K. Hawley and Mr. Townsend. Pastors, J. C. Holbrook, 
1842-1853 and 1855-1863, Jesse Guernsey, L. Whiting, J. Bingham, 
C. E. Harrington, C. O. Brown, F. E. Hopkins, F. G. Smith, G. L. Cady, 
F. M. Sheldon and H. F. Milligan. Buildings completed in 1836, 1839, 
1846 and 1860. 

Dubuque German: December 23, 1847. Peter Fleury, J. B. Madoulet, 
A. Van Vleet. Presbyterianized in 1853. 

Dubuque Immanuel: April 25, 1868. Hermann Ficke, 1868-1911, the 
only pastor. Dedicated, October 14, 1888. 

Dubuque Summit: November 20, 1890. Thos. R. McRoberts, M. Bar- 
rett, G M. Orvis, 1894-1911. Dedication, November 17, 1889 and 
June 19, 1898. 

Dunlap (Harrison) : May 8, 1859. Supplied from Magnolia, 1859-1866. 
J. B. Lowrey, H. Freeman, C. N. Lyman, D. McDermid, J. Copeland, 
H. S. Mills, A. Rogers, J. M. Cumings, William Carson, J. P. Clyde, 

E. Kent, R. D. Douglass and J. H. Armstrong. Dedications, 1868 and 
1876. 

Durango: February 14, 1848. J. W. Windsor, H. N. Gates, J. R. Upton, 
L. N. Williams, L. Jones, A. Wright, F. Fawkes, William Spell, William 
Glover. Since 1889, pastors of the German Church at Sherrill have 
supplied, preaching in English. Dedicated, June 23, 1907. 

Durant: May 25, 1856. J. S. Whittlesey, E. Ripley, H. Bullen, E. E. 
Webber, E. P. Whiting, Thomas Douglass, E. P. Smith, F. Lawson and 
A. K. Resner. Property turned over to the Episcopal Church in 1896. 
Church building erected in 1856. 

Dyersville: 1859. W. H. Hu de Bourch, H. L. Chase, Charles Hancock, 
W. B. Glover and Amos Jones. Beautiful house dedicated November 
16, 1864. Disbanded, 1886. 

Eagle Grove: October 15, 1881. Father Sands in early seventies. N. L. 
Burton, M. T. Rainier, W. W. Mead, S. R. Wells, I. N. Tomes, F. 
Elliott, C. R. Bruce, G. L. Shull, W. Radford, N. F. Douglass, F. E. 



THE CHURCHES IN A NUTSHELL 337 

Drake, T. O. Douglass, Jr., L. B. Hix, F. E. York. Dedications, Octo- 
ber 28, 1883 and February 9, 1896. 

Earlville: February 6, 1859. H. N. Gates, A. T. Loring, H. E. Boardman, 
W. M. Brooks, J. M. Bowers, J. R. Barnes, Thomas Kent, L. W. 
Winslow, D. M. Ogilvie, D. L. Hilliard, D. W. Blakesley, R. F. Paxton, 
J. C. Stoddard, A. B. Keeler, W. A. Alcorn and A. E. Pauley. Build- 
ings completed 1866 and 1887. 

Eddyville: January 31, 1845. B. A. Spaulding, 1844-1847, G. B. Hitch- 

, cock, 1847-1854, J. T. Cook, A. D. French, Daniel Lane, William 
Windsor, J. M. Chamberlain, A. Dutton, M. Rowley, Thomas Merrill, 
R. Hassell, J. H. Rockwell, I. N. Tomes, L. S. Hand, H. S. McCowan, 
R. W. Hughes, J. W. Buck, C. W. Hempstead, Lucy W. Carter and 
G. A. Hood. Dedication, April 7, 1884. 

Edgewood: See Yankee Settlement. 

Eldon: April 19, 1880. Benjamin St. John, J. E. Emerson, W. M. Brooks, 
William Holyoke, W. A. Black, E. E. Willey, J. S. Hodges, William 
Jones, J. A. Miller, George Marsh, J. R. Kaye, P. M. France, E. S. 
McClure, D. M. Reed and J. H. Skiles. Dedication, December 8, 
1880. 

Eldora: January 21, 1868. Father Emerson explored the field in 1856. 
C. F. Boynton, A. Graves, A. A. Baker, J. R. Barnes, J. R. Knodell, 
E. Adams, 1883-1889, E. Kent, 1889-1898, J. P. Clyde, C. C. Warner 
and W. G. Ramsey. Buildings completed in 1869, 1875 and 1894. 

Elliott: August 3, 1881. M. P. Dickey, E. E. Webster, R. W. Jamison, 
C. S. Hamilton, A. C. Crawford, R. W Harris, R. W. Brooks, F. C. 
Lewis, B. F. Myers and Owen Thomas. 

Ellsworth: November 18, 1902. George R. Chambers, E. P. Crane, A. A. 
Wood, F. Merrithew A. W Ricker. Dedication, December 20, 1903. 

Elkader: A church organized March, 1855. Never had a regular pastor; 
few supplies; lived ten years. Reorganized August 5, 1894. F. L. 
Fisk, G. W. Baxter, A. S. Hock, J. G. Dickey and M. L. Stimson, 
Dedication, June 20, 1897. 

Elk: November 19, 1886. Yoked with Edgewood. Survived only five 
or six years. 

Elk Creek, Jasper Co.: Little country church, supplied for two or three 
years by Maurice Carey. Soon disappeared. 

Elk River: December 1, 1854. Emerson appointment here as early as 
1848; never a resident pastor. Supplied by O. Emerson, L. Parker, 
George Butterfield, O. Littlefield and others. Dedication, 1855. 

Elma: May 13, 1887. Eli Beers, B. F. Paul, L. A. Brink, V. F. Brown, 
James Rowe, L. E. Potter, E. H. H. Holman, O. L. McCleery, J. C. 
Warner and F. E. Cain. Dedication, June 29, 1890. 

23 



338 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Emmetsburg: October 20, 1872. W. L. Coleman, S. G. Fisher, J. M. Cum- 

ings, G. M. Spencer, O. P. Champlain, E. P. Crane, T. F. Bowen, H. M. 

Case, G. L. Kent, A. P. Solandt, Glen A. Taylor, O. Lambly and 

J. E. Brereton. Dedications, January 12, 1881 and February 14, 

1897. 
Exira: April 9, 1859. O. Cummings, G. B. Hitchcock, E. S. Hill, C. D. 

Wright, J. S. Toft, A. G. R. Smith, W. B. Smock, R. M. Burgess, J. M. 

Cumings, J. A. Hallock, A. W. Thompson, D. M. Hartsough, Q. C. 

Todd, G. P. Eastman, J. F. Roberts, M. D. Reed, H. L. Wissler, E. H^ 

Votaw, W. W. Hartsough and F. H. Richarsdon. Dedication, July 

16, 1871. 
Fairfax: July 11, 1863. O. French, E. P. Kimball, H. Freeman, D. J. 

Jones, Harvey Adams, C. H. Rogers, D. D. Frost, Amos Jones, R. 

Hassell, W. H. Kaufman, C. H. Morse, A. Pyner, L. W. Brintnall, 

A. A. Baker, Abbie R. Hinckley and C. P. Martin. 

Fairfield: December 21, 1839. J. A. Reed, 1840-1845, William Thompson, 
G. G. Rice, C. H. Gates, Reed Wilkinson, J. M. Williams, Thomas 
Merrill, C. C. Burnett, R. M. Thompson, J. W. Haven, M. E. D wight, 
1879-1888, A. E. Arnold, H. L. Marsh, A. F. Marsh, C. L. Snowden, 
H. O. Spellman, Pearse Pinch and A. G. Graves. Erected 1842, 1852 
and 1885. 

Farmington: January 4, 1840. Harvey Adams, 1843-1860 and 1862- 
1866, twenty-one years, A. K. Mitchell, D. B. Eells, J. Cross, F. Bangs; 
pastorless 1877-1893, A. J. Belknap, A. W. Wiggins, C. W. Anthony, 
J. K. Nutting, N. P. Olmstead, J. E. Ball. Dedication, January 25, 
1848. Still in use. 

Farmersburg: November, 1845. J. R. Upton, M. M. Wakeman, E. C. 
Downs, Joel Battey, W. S. Potwin. Disbanded, 1884. 

Farmersburg German: September 3, 1853. C. V. Hess and J. Killan. 

Fayette: December 1, 1855. S. D. Helms, 1855-1858, 1860-1861, 1870- 
1871, T. N. Skinner, J. J. Hill, J. F. Classon, W. S. Potwin, E. C. 
Moulton, J. R. Barnes, L. W. Winslow, N. W. Scarrett, Robert Mumby, 
J. E. Snowden, D. O. Bean, H. Wyckoff, Benjamin St. John, W. H. 
Klose, F. W. Weatherwax and A. J. Benton. Dedication in 1870 
and 1895. 

Farnhamville: April 17, 1879. Yoked with Gowrie, 1879-1898. After 
1898 J. A. Holmes, Philo Gorton, A. G. Washington, D. G. Youker, 

B. W. Northrop. Dedication, May 15, 1883. 

Farragut: October 3, 1875. C. H. Eaton, S. J. Beach, 1878-1887, G. D. 
Stouffer, J. H. Skiles, 1891-1904, A. A. Cressman, B. C. Marsh, J. M. 
Cumings. Dedication, September 18, 1881. G. W. Perkins, Sunday 
School Superintendent 1875-1893; W. B. Clark, 1893-1910. 



THE CHURCHES IN A NUTSHELL 339 

Fellowship, Madison Co.: June, 1901. Yoked with Madison Co. First 

Dedication, August 21, 1904. 
Flaglers: Born June 30, 1889; died the next day. 
Flint Creek Welsh: April 1, 1851. T. W. Evans, 1856-1871, R. T. Evans 

and S. A. Fuller. No report after 1881. 
Florence: December 1, 1850. Supplied by John Todd 1850-1853. Town 

washed into the Missouri river. 
Floyd: June 19, 1859. Supplied short time by William Windsor of Charles 

City. Dropped in 1862. 
Fontanelle: July 20, 1859. Joseph Mather, I. S. Davis, A. V. House, 

J. W. Peet, 1867-1875, Charles Merwin, A. W. Archibald, H. S. Fish, 

G. W. Dungan, P. R. Adams, T. S. Bradley, J. L. Pierson, D. M. Mc- 

Dermid, Emma K. Henry, J. G. Aikman, C. B. Taylor, J. W. Kelley, 

H. J. WiMns, George Milne and D. H. Howrey. Dedication, June 4, 

1871 and December 9, 1900. 
Fort Atkinson: November, 1857. Joseph Hurlbut, sixteen years. 1857- 

1873. Disbanded in 1879. 
Fort Atkinson German: June 19, 1867. Henry Hess, 1867-1893, W. H. 

Dorn, Carl Zumstein, F. J. Thiel, Andrew Kern, Emil Warkenstein, 

Herman Eiserer, E. VonTromwasky. Dedication, June 29, 1867. 
Fort Dodge: February 29, 1856. T. N. Skinner, Charles F. Boynton, 

William Kent, David Wirt, William A. Patten, Thomas Douglass, 

D. M. Breckenridge, L. L. West, E. S. Carr, E. R. Latham, H. D. 

Wiard, W. J. Suckow, R. L. Breed and Nelson Wehrhan. Dedications, 

January 24, 1870 and December 19, 1886. 
Forest City: September 29, 1871. A. S. Allen, 1S69-1876. J. D. Mason, 

eighteen years, C. F. Dykeman, Abbie R. Hinckley, W. B. Sanford, 

W. A. Evans, D. W. McSkimming, J. T. Walker and F. E. Henry. 

Dedicated January 20, 1878. 
Fostoria: Organized in 1902. Supplied from Milford. Survived only a 

few months. 
Franklin: July 24, 1858. C. H. Gates, J. C. Cooper, O. French, D. B. 

Eells, F. W. Crang, P. B. West, Bennett Roberts, J. E. Morse, Thomas 

Merrill, C. E. Marsh, A. Risser, E. P. Crane, S. A. Wheelwright, A. C. 

Teuber and S. A. Arnold. Dropped 1903. 
Gait: December 9, 1883. W. F. Harvey, 1883-1889, S. A. Martin, 

1890-1898, W. T. Seeley, Vinton Lee, P. H. Fisk, J. L. Martin and Jos. 

Davies. Dedication, December 13, 1891. 
Garden Prairie: February 7, 1870. A. A. Baker, C. O. Parmenter, O. C. 

Dickerson, S. A. Arnold, 1881-1887, C. E. Marsh, H. E. Warner, B. C. 

Tillett, J. C. Stoddard, A. W. McNeal, C. H. Stevenson, J. E. Grinnell, 

H. J. Taylor. 



340 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Garnavillo (Jacksonville): August 1, 1844. J. J. Hill, 1844-1850, 0. 
Littlefield, L. P. Mathews, 1855-1863, G. M. Porter, B. A. Dean, B. 
Kings, E. C. Downs, Joel Battey and W. S. Potwin. Dedication, 
December 5, 1847 and June 23, 1867. No pastor after 1884. Dis- 
banded in 1888. Church building standing. Used for neighborhood 
Sunday School and occasional services. 

Garner: September 1, 1891. C. E. Sinclair, F. L. Fisk, S. Simpson, N. F. 
Douglass, J. B. Mather, F. L. Hanscom, B. F. Myers, F. E. Henry, 
I. Toms and W. E. Sauerman. Dedication, October 7, 1894. 

Gaza: February 5, 1897. Abi L. Nutting, J. F. Lansborough, F. C. Lewis, 

E. T. Briggs, E. H. Albright and Mary P. Wright. Dedication, Novem- 
ber 8, 1896. 

Gem Point: March 19, 1889. Yoked with Orient. Dedication, August 
13, 1891. 

Genoa Bluffs: October 5, 1856. W. P. Gale, J. J. Hill, B. I. Jones, William 
Patten, H. A. Clark, M. Archer, 1874-1883, H. L. Marsh, James Rowe, 
G. L. Wilson, J. A Brown, G. W. Stark, G. A. McKinley, D. I. Morgan 
and J. M. Whitehead, 1904-1910. 

Georgetown: June 14, 1863. Tudor Jones, Cadwallader Jones, J. Cad- 
wallader and A. S. Elliott. No report after 1884. 

German Township: January 22, 1892. Yoked with Webster. Dedica- 
tion, August 28, 1892. 

Gifford: January 31, 1893. Yoked with Eldora, E. Kent supplying. Sur- 
vived only a few months. 

Gilbert: February 29, 1880. Yoked with Ames until 1897. Pastors 
since, G. W. Tingle, A. L. Dunton, J. W. Buck, C. T. Halbert, A. J. 
Naly, A. J. Wolfe. Dedications in 1882 and 1909. 

Gilman: March 27, 1870. J. M. Chamberlain, S. J. Buck, 1871-1878, 

F. H. Magoun, G. M. D. Slocum, A. S. Houston, Robert Lavender, 
C. L. Hammond, G. R. Chambers, G. E. Chapman, William Kennedy. 
Dedication, November 19, 1871. 

Givin: January, 1875. C. D. Jones, I. C. Hughes, I. M. Jones, C. W. 

Evans and Lloyd Williams since 1900. Reports incomplete. 
GlenEllyn: Had a name to live; yoked with Sergeant Bluffs, 1892-1896. 
Gladbrook: Nominal existence, 1881-1887. Occasional supply from 

Toledo. 
Glasgow: May 21, 1853. Yoked with Salem, Rome and Hillsboro and 

supplied by Kennedy, Cooper, Belknap and others. Pastorless a 

great portion of time. 
Glenwood: October 18, 1856. Jonathan Todd, M. Tingley, A. V. House, 

O. W. Cooley, J. K. Nutting, 1869-1873 and 1890-1895, J. Allender, 

A. Rogers, J. B. Sharp, M. M. Thompson, G. T. Holcombe, C. H. Craw- 



THE CHURCHES IN A NUTSHELL 341 

ford, M. D. Reed, J. B. Stanton, W. A. Rockoven, J. H. Skiles and 
R. W. Burton. Dedications in 1857 and 1893. A. D. French, Sun- 
day School Superintendent twenty-seven years. 

Good Hope: February 24, 1891. Yoked with Nevinville. Dedicated, 
February 7, 1892. 

Golden Prairie: March 28, 1869. E. R. Stiles, B. M. Amsden, J. M. Frey, 
E. G. Carpenter, D. N. Bordwell, A. F. Loomis, L. M. Pierce, W. R. 
Smith, John Croker, Robert Mumby, W. B. Jackson, Robert Howie, 
M. J. P. Thing. 

Gomer: July 21, 1872. Samuel Jones, Caleb Samson, David E. Evans, 
R. E. Roberts, Owen Thomas, 1898-1904, Arthur Davies and John 
Roberts. 

Gospel Ridge: Yoked with Agency 1896-1900, and supplied by D. M. 
Lower. 

Gowrie: October 24, 1875. D. G. Youker twenty years, 1875-1892 and 
1906-1909, Thomas W. Barbour, W. B. Payne, L. H. Cook, M. Barrett, 
B. L. Webber, A. M. Leichliter, C. L. McDougaU, J. D. McCord and 
J. T. Steele. Dedication, November 11, 1879. 

Grand River: March 21, 1868. W. B. Bachtell, David Knowles, M. D. 
Archer, W. W. Hazen, H. N. Lawrence, H. O. Lawrence, E. J. B. Salter, 
Bertha Bowers, G. T. Herrick, F. E. Calhoun and W. E. Wolfington. 
Dedication in February, 1876. 

Grandview: June 19, 1857. German 1857-1903. A. Blumer, H. Lang- 
paap, F. W. Judeisch, 1860-1875, H. Hetzler, A. Kern, H. Vogler, 
G. L. Brakemeyer, E. F. Kluckhohn, William Berg, C. W. Anthony, 
P. J. Theil and H. W. Stein. English pastors, H. S. Everet, W. L. 
Childress and S. E. Eells. Dedication, June 27, 1858. 

Grant: October 9, 1871. J. H. Covey, 1871-1875; then "suspended 
animation" until 1882. Date of reorganization in 1882 retained until 
1899 when original date was adopted; pastors after 1882, R. E. Helms, 
J. C. Stoddard (Dwight Strong and J. G. Langdale, students), D. E. 
Skinner, John Lansborough and F. C. Lewis. Dedicated, March 8, 1884. 

Grant Center: January 24, 1897. Yoked with Rodney. Disbanded, 1909. 

Green's Grove: 1887-1897. Yoked with Center Point. 

Green Island: January 2, 1888. Part Father Emerson's field. Yoked 
with Miles and Bellevue. Pastors, W. E. DeRiemer, G. W. Sargent, 
S. A. Wheelwright, etc. Dedication, October 18, 1888. 

Green Mountain: June 15, 1857. Alfred Wright, Robert Stuart, 1861- 
1869, H. L. Chase, 1870-1882, C. W. Wiley, J. H. Albert, W. H. Atkin- 
son, William Chappell, D. Smith, J. Croker, C. R. Bruce, O. H. L. 
Mason, F. G. Wilcox, G. H. Croker, O. G. Mason and G. E. Galla- 
gher. Building erected in 1868. Rededicated, August 6, 1899. 



342 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Greenville: April 10, 1905. J. B. Chase, 1905-1907. Disbanded 1909. 
Dedication, September 2, 1906. 

Grinnell: April 8, 1855. Supplied J. B. Grinnell, Stephen Herrick, 1855- 
1863. Pastors, S. D. Cochran, W. W. Woodworth, J. M. Sturtevant, 
1877-1884, John Safford, H. M. Tenney, E. M. Vittum, 1891-1906, 
H. N. Dascomb, 1907-1910. Buildings erected in 1855, 1860 and 1878. 
Rededication, October 28, 1894. 

Grove City: January 29, 1865. E. S. Hill, 1866-1869; then pastor and 
church moved to Atlantic. 

Hampton: September 9, 1857. J. Wilcox in 1857. W. P. Avery, 1858- 
1872, O. D. Crawford, W. H. Barrows, A. D. Kinzer, 1877-1888, A. S. 
Badger, J. W. Ferner, 1893-1900, J. L. Ward, C. E. Tower, James 
Thomson, 1905-. Dedications, June 30, 1872 and February 14, 1897. 

Harlan: June 25, 1871. J. G. Sabin, E. L. Sherman, C. N. Sinnett, J. W. 
Geiger, G. L. Shull, J. B. Mather, C. Snowden, E. P. Child, James 
Parsons, F. G. Beardsley, F. W. Keagy, J. L. Blanchard. Church 
building erected 1882, chapel 1898. Rededication, February 24, 1900. 

Harmony: April 19, 1891. Yoked with Milford and Dickens, 1891-1899. 
Later Abi L. Preston, N. C. Harvey, H. R. Core, J. B. Chase, A. M. 
Leichliter, C. S. Marsolf. Dedications, 1893 and 1908. First house 
demolished by cyclone. 

Hartwick (Warren): May 30, 1875. G. F. Magoun, R. Hassell, W. H. 
Romig, C. H. Eaton, C. E. Blodgett, R. F. Lavender, L. W. Ruhl, 
W. E. Sauerman, J. E. Perry, J. W. Spire, A. N. Fish, L. W. Brintnall, 
H. Wilson, C. T. Halbert, O. D. Crawford, Nelson Wehrhan, W. T. 
Butcher, J. E. Nyhan and H. H. Pittman. House moved to the village 
and dedicated September 28, 1890. 

Hawarden: April, 1883. W. S. Bell, A. A. Andridge, G. F. Hunter, W. J. 
Suckow, (eight years,) E. H. Votaw, B. W. Burleigh, J. P. Burling, 
C. M. Westlake and C. A. Chambers. Dedication, December 29, 1885. 

Hawthorne: April 25, 1884. Joseph England and Emma K. Henry, 
1884-1887. Disbanded, 1888. 

Hawleyville: Organized in 1860. A. V. House, 1860-1862. Disbanded 
in 1863. 

Hebron: February 8, 1889. W. W. Hazen, H. N. Lawrence, H. O. Law- 
rence, 1889-1895. Disbanded, 1895. 

Hickory Grove: May 17, 1867. Yoked with Mt. Pleasant, Crawfords- 
ville and Wayne. Dedication, January 16, 1870. 

Highland: July 9, 1871. A. Lyman and B. B. Lane, 1873-1883. United 
with M. P. Church, 1890. 

Hillsboro: January 15, 1853. J. C. Cooper, J. R. Kennedy, S. Hemen- 
way, J. S. Barris, C. F. Dykeman, L. T. Rowley. No pastor after 1882. 
Disbanded, 1890. 



THE CHURCHES IN A NUTSHELL 343 

Hinsdale: December 24, 1898. Yoked with Blencoe. Dedication, Febru- 
ary 4, 1900. 
Hinton: August 15, 1891. Only a nominal existence for a few months. 
Hiteman: September, 1895. Owen Thomas, A. F. Marsh, G. W. James, 

R. B. HaU, G. R. Griffith, N. F. Bahn, F. S. Artz. Dedication, May 

12, 1901. 
Hope: The span of its life, December 25, 1896-1901. Yoked with Exira. 
Hudson: October 4, 1885. Yoked with Reinbeck. Disbanded in 1895. 
Hull (Pattersonville) : S. S. Newcomb, M. S. Croswell, J. B. Chase, C. R. 

Bruce, W. H. Kaufman, C. H. Kershaw. Dedication, December 23, 

1883. Presbyterianized in 1900. 
Humboldt: September 27, 1871. Alexander Parker, Charles Wiley, 

Norman McLeod, J. H. Gurney, Peter St. Clair, E. C. Moulton, E. S. 

Carr, F. J. Douglass, C. P. Boardman, R. L. Marsh, E. A. Harris, M. D. 

Reed, H. D. Herr. Buildings erected, 1872 and 1904. 
Humeston: August 25, 1901. A Presbyterian Church Congregationalized. 

E. S. McClure, Glen H. Putnam and Nathan H. Gist. Dedication, 

June 10, 1906. 
Hutchins: January 7, 1894. Yoked with Britt. Disbanded, 1909. 

Dedicated, December 3, 1900. 
Independence: May 8, 1867. H. Mills, C. H. Bissell, L. W. Brintnall, 

Roswell Foster, M. S. Croswell, D. Chapman, J. F. Home, A. A. Baker, 

J. W. Horner, N. F. Douglass, H. C. Rosenberger, William H. Hotzie, 

T. B. Couchman. Dedication, 1868. 
Inland, Cedar Co.: January 28, 1855. Edward Allen, W. A. Keith, H. W. 

Cobb, J. R. Upton, S. N. Grout, O. Littlefield. Closed up in 1862. 
Ionia: September 10, 1889. Began with ninety-five members. N. L. 

Packard, Samuel Eveland, George L. Hanscom, O. L. McCleery, A. V. 

Ogilvie, H. W. Webb, Thomas Maxwell, P. M. France, E. C. Chevis, 

C. T. Halbert. Dedicated, September 14, 1890. 
Iowa City: November 26, 1856. T. Morong, J. C. Hutchinson, W. W. 

Allen, G. D. A. Hebard, R. Sawyer, W. F. Ijams, J. W. Healey, F. L. 

Kenyon, 1878-1885, R. G. Woodbridge, 1875-1888, M. A. Bullock, 

1888-1900, G. A. Cady, H. L. Strain, J. T. Jones. 
Iowa Falls: March 20, 1856. John Wilcox, William Kent, A. Graves, 

J. L. Atkinson, O. Clark, D. J. Baldwin, Asa Countryman, T. J. Reid, 

W. D. Symonds, A. O. Cossar, H. B. Long, J. B. Chase, A. M. Case, 

T. M. Price, 1895-1906, William Hardcastle since 1907. The church 

was organized at Middlefield, Ohio, and moved out to Iowa. Dedica- 
tions, August 16, 1866 and November 13, 1887. 
Irving: December 19, 1859, Yoked with Toledo and Belle Plaine. 

Dropped in 1873. 



344 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Jackson: January 21, 1891. Yoked with Central City. Church erected 
in 1891. 

Jefferson: 1851. Yoked with Wayne and Brighton. Services infrequent 
and irregular. Died in 1870. 

Jewell: August 5, 1883. Asa Countryman, W. C. Hicks, S. A. Arnold, 
A. W. Swengel, J. W. Elser, G. W. Tingle, M. C. Haecker, G. R. Cham- 
bers, W. L. Brandt, Earle Munger, G. O. Porter, A. W. Ricker. Dedi- 
cation, November 28, 1886. 

Keb: July 11, 1895; in a mining camp; survived five years; pastors from 
Ottumwa and Beacon supplying. 

Keck: July 27, 1891. Yoked with Silver Creek. Building dedicated 
September 6, 1891; destroyed by cyclone July 6, 1893; rebuilt and 
dedicated November 12, 1893. 

Kelley: March 21, 1876. O. C. Dickerson, C. O. Parmenter, S. A. Arnold, 
C. E. Marsh, B. C. Tillett, H. E. Warner, G. A. Conrad, G. L. Mc- 
Dougall, J. C. Stoddard, A. W. McNeal, J. K. Nutting, C. H. Steven- 
son and W. J. Minchin. Dedicated in 1878. 

Kellogg: February 22, 1868. Original name Jasper City. A. Lyman, 
R. Hassell, H. S. Thompson, F. G. Woodworth, T. G. Brainard, A. A. 
Baker, D. J. Baldwin, Philo Gorton, E. P. Allen, Julius Marks, W. N. 
Dunham, J. L. Brown, W. L. Brandt, G. C. Jewell, F. C. Gonzales, 
J. F. Smith. Dedication, May 26, 1889, the house having been in use 
for seven years. 

Keokuk: February 14, 1854. James P. Kimball, H. P. Roberts, W. W. 
Allen, George Thatcher, 1860-1867, B. Judkins, Cyrus Pickett, Clayton 
Welles, F. G. Grassie, J. S. Hoyt, H. M. Penniman, W. L. Beyers, 
G. E. Paddock, G. C. Williams. Chapel completed, 1857, parsonage, 
1869; present church building, 1909. 

Keosauqua: December 3, 1844. Earlier organization Presbyterian. 
Daniel Lane, 1843-1853, O. Dimon, W. D. Sands, J. D. Sands, 1856- 
1866, J. Windsor, J. P. Richards, J. W. Horner, D. M. Breckenridge, 
T. C. Walker, T. Oadams, and C. E. Perkins 1896-1911. Dedica- 
tions, December 14, 1848 and April 1, 1888. 

Kinglsey: February 14, 1886. M. T. Rainier, J. W. Chaffin, M. Albert, 
John Croker, G. A. Conrad, E. E. Webber, S. F. Millikan, W. D. 
Spiker. Dedications, December 18, 1887 and February 14, 1909. 

Knoxville: August 6, 1858. This the first organization. Charles Burn- 
ham and O. F. French, 1852 and 1864. Disbanded, 1865. Reorgan- 
ized, January 21, 1894. O. V. Rice, G. W. Baxter, H. L. Preston, 
C. L. Hyde, D. W. Swender and S. J. Geddes. Dedication, No- 
vember 19, 1895. 

Laddsdale: January 28, 1889. Yoked with Eldon, 1889-1896; then dis- 
banded. 



THE CHURCHES IN A NUTSHELL 345 

Lakeport: March 21, 1895. Yoked with Sloan until 1900, then disbanded. 

Lakeview: April 13, 1890. M. D. Reed, R. L. McCord, T. J. Woodcock, 
H. G. Cooley, W. G. Little, John Croker, P. B. West, B. J. Rhodes, 
C. T. Halbert, J. B. Bickford, E. Herbert and J. T. Marvin. Dedica- 
tion, November 20, 1892. 

Lakeside: April 7, 1895. R. R. Wood, L. R. Fitch, F. C. Gonzales, J. D. 
Mason, etc. Dedication, October 20, 1889. 

Lakeville: July 9, 1870. J. R. Upton, 1869-1880. Destroyed by the 



Lansing: May 15, 1853. T. Lyman, G. Bent, D. N. Bordwell, J. B. 

Gilbert, Alexander Parker, T. H. Canfield, O. Clark, A. Graves, P. 

Litts, C. H. Rogers. No pastor after 1878. Disbanded, 1886. 
Lansing Ridge (Church) German: August 21, 1864. J. H. Langpaap, H. 

Sallenbach, P. Weideman, P. Hirth, John Single, J. Reuth, J. 

Schneider, A. Kern, W. C. Zumstein, George Hein and A. Kegel. 
Lamoille: November 2, 1886. S. A. Martin, J. W. Scott, A. L. Dunton, 

E. E. Reed, C. G. Oxley, R. E. House, S. J. Huffman, J. D. Lewis and 

E. B. Palmer. Dedication, November 6, 1887. 
Larchwood: September 29, 1886. W. H. Watson, W. N. Dunham, H. W. 

Mercer, A. M. Leichliter, William Jones, D. E. Evans, G. H. Croker, 

G. A. Wickwire, G. W. Schroeder, A. J. Benton, T. Thompson. Build- 
ings erected in 1890, enlarged in 1900; burned in 1909; rebuilt, 1909. 
Le Claire: September 2, 1849. L. H. Bullen (Prof, of Iowa College), 

H. W. Cobb, L. R. White, J. T. Marsh, A. A. Alvord, D. N. Bordwell, 

A. Harper. No pastor after 1860. 
Le Claire Center: September 13, 1854. Existence for three years. Yoked 

with Le Claire. 
Ledyard: February 4, 1894. Yoked with Buffalo Center. Dropped 

from list in 1908. 
Lawler: February 5, 1871. B. F. Manwell (died in office). A. V. House 

(died in office). Yoked with Waucoma since 1874. Protestant plant 

in midst of Catholicism. 
Le Mars: August 4, 1871. R. M. Sawyer (died in office), D. D. Frost, 

A. E. Arnold, R. Morton, C. S. Beardsley, J. P. Patch, J. E. Snowden, 

W. J. Suckow, A. F. Fehlandt, W. J. Johnston, L. G. Kent, J. L. Blan- 

chard, R. W. Purdue and C. F. Fisher. Dedications, August 24, 1873 

and March 3, 1889. 
Lewis: April 11, 1855. G. B. Hitchcock, L. Harlow, W. C. Sexton, B. F. 

Haviland, A. A. Whitmore, Charles Little, 1875-1885, J. H. Skiles, 

A. Clark, G. C. Jewell, D. E. Evans, H. J. Hinman, J. L. Fisher, F. W. 

Keagy and B. F. Myers. Dedication, November, 1865 and October 

11, 1903. Parsonage in 1879. 



346 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Lima: January 1, 1851. S. D. Helms, 1857-1864 and 1866-1873, J. J. 
Hill, W. S. Potwin and E. C. Moulton. Disbanded in 1882. 

Lincoln: December 23, 1888. Yoked with Jewell and Ellsworth. Dedi- 
cation, November 3, 1889. 

Linn Grove: February 14, 1891. Yoked with Berwick, 1891-1895, and 
after that with Bondurant. Dedication, September 20, 1891. 

Little Cedar: January, 1846. Previously Presbyterian, E. Ripley, A. B. 
Dilley and 0. French, 1844-1852. Disbanded. 

Little Rock: May 28, 1893. P. B. West, D. Donaldson, F. W. Gardner, 
W. A. Brintnall, C. A. Downs, Edward Wilson, C. J. Gall, J. F. Steele. 
Dedication, November 26, 1893. 

Long Creek: January 14, 1846. First pastor, David Knowles, who preached 
here the first Welsh sermon in Iowa in September, 1845. Other pas- 
tors, Thomas Evans, Owen Owens, Samuel Jones, I. C. Hughes, M. E. 
Davies, J. E. Jones, W. H. Jones, Lloyd William, James Jenkins, R. P. 
Roberts and T. P. Jenkins. 

Lucas Grove: April 30, 1858. A. B. Robbins before organization preached 
in the neighborhood and continued up to 1860. Other pastors, J. B. 
Gilbert and T. H. Canfield. Building in 1859. Disbanded, 1888. 

Luzerne, Bohemian: July 18, 1899. Services began in 1888, by John 
Musil and F. T. Bastel. Anton Paulu, pastor since 1903. 

Lyons: December 21, 1839. Pastors and Supplies, J. H. Prentis, O. Emer- 
son, T. P. Emerson, J. C. Holbrook, H. G. Warner, J. T. Mowrey, S, F. 
Francis, J. C. Strong, S. N. Grout, O. Miner, G. R. Moore, L. J. White, 
G. F. Magoun, M. W. Fairfield, T. M. Boss, L. Curtis, Sidney Craw- 
ford, H. A. Shory, T. S. Oadams, E. S. Carr, E. B. Chase, C. W. Wilson, 
F. B. Hicks, A. D. Kinzer, C. E. Tower, J. Foster, C. A. Riley. Dedica- 
tions, July 13, 1856; July 12, 1857; October 12, 1862 and August 5, 
1894. 

Madison Co. First: May 6, 1884. M. D. Archer, A. M. Beman, C. S. 
Hamilton, W. W. Hazen, H. O. Lawrence, E. J. B. Salter, Bertha Bow- 
ers, George Herrick, M. H. Booth, F. C. Calhoun, H. R. Baker, W. E. 
Wolfington and L. G. J. Kelley. 

Magnolia: April 1, 1855. W. W. Ludden, H. D. King, G. B. Hitchcock, 
W. R. Black, J. H. Morley, W. H. Haywood, G. T. Tompkins, W. Rad- 
ford, L. P. Sabin, Geo. L. Marsh, Benson Sewall, C. P. Boardman, O. 
Brown, Abi L. Preston, D. Cameron, P. B. West, 1895-1900 and 1905- 
1909, A. E. Bashford and F. W. Luxford. Building erected, 1859. 

Manchester: August 3, 1856. L. B. Fifield, A. T. Loring, D. Russell, 
A. A. Baker, E. R. Stiles, J. P. Barrett, B. T. Stafford, J. G. Miller, H. W. 
Tuttle, 1889-1905, W. J. Suckow, C. E. Lynde and J. F. Moore. 
Dedications in 1864, 1884 and 1900. 



THE CHURCHES IN A NUTSHELL 347 

Manson: May 21, 1868. Calvin LaDue, A. V. House, W. J. Smith, D. G. 

Youker, 1877-1889, W. H. Klose, F. Elliott, W. H. Stubbins, H. P. 

Douglass, George Marsh, F. G. Wilcox, A. W. Moore, E. J. B. Salter, 

H. J. Wilkins, I. O. Mallory. Dedications, July, 1874, and November, 

1899. 
Maquoketa: December 10, 1843. William Salter, W. A. Keith, J. W. 

Windsor, C. E. Dellevan, W. A. Patten, P. Blakeman, C. S. Cady, J. B. 

Gilbert, J. T. Cook, J. S. Graves, S. F. Millikan, 1875-1888, T. S. 

Oadams, Samuel Shepherd, M. Dana and W. D. Lewis. Dedications, 

1851 and 1878. 
Marion: April 1, 1848. B. Roberts, J. R. Mershon, A. Manson, D. S. 

Dickenson, J. H. Windsor, J. A. Ross, C. H. Bissell, W. A. Waterman, 

W. W. Gist, J. W. Geiger, J. B. Gonzales, A. D. Kinzer, M. L. Hutton 

and J. J. Jones. Dedications, 1852 and 1877. 
Marshalltown: July 9, 1868. R. B. Bull, W. L. Bray, William Windsor, 

George C. Lamb, W. R. Scarritt, J. H. Henderson, C. R. Gale, C. P. 

Boardman, A. W. Sinden, L. B. Hix and B. F. Martin. Dedications, 

December 21, 1870 and February 23, 1890. 
Masonville: November 13, 1893. W. E. Lamphear, 1894-1896. Dis- 
banded, 1897. 
Mason City: March 7, 1858. T. Tenney, S. P. LaDue, J. D. Mason, J. B. 

Gilbert, W. P. Bennett, N. T. Blakesley, E. C. Moulton, J. R. Knodell, 

G. Rindell, A. Blanchard, D. N. Hartsough, J.W. Geiger, S. F. Millikan, 

F. G. Wilcox, C. H. Rogers, A. H. Jordan and C. E. Tower. Dedica- 
tions, May 12, 1868 and December 4, 1898. 

Mason City Plymouth: October 25, 1910. 

McGregor: January 4, 1857. Joseph Bloomer, T. A. Wadsworth, H. G. 
McArthur, S. P. Sloan, (1860-1870), D. R. McNabb, S. F. Millikan, 
C. C. Cragin, J. E. Bissell, C. A. Marshall, 1887-1900, B. W. Burleigh, 

G. A. Francis, W. E. Mann and S. T. Kidder. Dedication, October 
28, 1860; rededication, February 20, 1868 and again January 3, 1904. 

Meriden: 1880. Yoked with Cherokee. J. B. Chase, 1880-1884. Dis- 
banded in 1886. 

Miles: August 15, 1879. Alexander Parker, 1879-1885, W. E. DeRiemer, 
W. H. Burnard, D. D. Tibbetts, M. A. Frost, J. L. Blanchard, M. P. 
France, B. F. Myers, A. W. Wiggins. Dedication, June 9, 1886. 

Midland: April 24, 1874. Yoked with Union and Eldora. Disbanded, 1895. 

Milford: June 25, 1888. Services by Father Upton as early as 1872. 
Burton and Skinner supplied 1888-1890. Pastors, L. R. Fitch, A. L. 
Weatherly, F. W. Gardner, B. L. Webber, H. H. Burch, W. G. Johnston, 
J. H. Olmstead, J. V. Rosewarne, E. Wilson and J. M. Turner. Dedi- 
cations, August 2, 1891, June 16, 1901 and December 17, 1905. 



348 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Minden German: February 23, 1891. Andrew Kern, Paul Quarder, Jacob 
Fath, F. Brenneke, E. C. Osthoff, F. C. Scherff, H. W. Stein, P. J. 
Theil. Dedication, August 18, 1901. 

Mitchell: February 14, 1857. S. P. LaDue, W. L. Coleman, William 
Windsor, D. J. Baldwin, Robert Kerr, Alexander Parker, E. Butler, 
J. Chandler, H. A. Heath, William Klose, H. A. Risser, O. S. Palmer, 
W. H. Stubbins, L. A. Brink, E. P. Crane, A. W. McNeel, H. Wilson, 
O. L. McLeery, O. N. VanSwarengen, R. K. Chapman. Dedication, 
March 14, 1869. Moved to the Center in 1877. 

Mitchellville: September 10, 1878. J. W. Ferner, G. H. Sharpley, J. G. 
Sabin, H. C. Rosenberger, C. B. Taylor, V. B. Hill, W. L. Brandt, J. V. 
Rosewarne, L. W. Nine, P. H. Fisk. Dedications, May 14, 1882 and 
September 27, 1903. 

Mizpah (Somers): October 1, 1897. Yoked with Moorland. Dedica- 
tion, December 12, 1897. Moved to Somers and rededicated March 

4, 1906. 

Mondamin: February 17, 1875. Yoked with Onawa and Magnolia. 
Much of the time pastorless. 

Monona: February 17, 1855. D. B. Davidson, J. R. Upton, J. M. Smith, 
P. Litts, W. S. Potwin, A. H. Campbell, F. Elliott, A. A. Young, W. H. 
Klose, S. T. Beatty, J. E. Grinnell, B. H. Cheney. Dedications, De- 
cember 19, 1866 and January 3, 1904. An earlier Monona, starting in 
1849, A. M. Eastman, pastor, 1849-1852. 

Monroe: August 27, 1865. S. N. Grout, C. M. Bingham, C. C. Har- 
rah. Disbanded, 1886. 

Monticello: November 13, 1860. E. P. Kimball, Isaac Russell, D. J. 
Jones, J. K. Nutting, J. D. Bell, Wm. Leavitt, L. W. Brintnall, D. 
Jenkins, C. A. Towle, J. T. Blanchard, W. L. Demorest, J. W. 
Davis, A. M. Case, C. C. Warner, M. A. Breed since 1904. Dedi- 
cated, January 27, 1868 and January 20, 1901. In 1862 only eight 
members, only one man. J. A. Doutrick Sunday School Superin- 
tendent for the past thirty years. 

Montour (Indiantown and Orford) : June 10, 1855. T. N. Skinner, G. H. 
Woodward, N. M. Crane, J. J. Hill, Robert Stuart, F. Hurd, C. C. 
Adams, 1876-1883, W. H. Barrows, 1883-1889, H. Avery, 1889-1899, 
A. R. Dodd, D. W. Blakely, G. C. Sprague. Dedication, February 11, 
1868. 

Moorland: December 11, 1887. L. L. West, E. S. Carr, F. Hoover, 

5. A. Wheelwright, M. C. Haecker, W. D. King, E. E. Webber, A. S. 
Willoughby, Charles Wyatt and J. L. Martin. 

Mound Prairie: February 26, 1871. J. Mender, W. J. Smith, Charles 
Slater and E. L. Sherman. Dedication, August, 1872. No pastor 
since 1879. Disbanded, 1884. 



THE CHURCHES IN A NUTSHELL 349 

Moville (Arlington): September 20, 1885. D. E. Skinner, A. S. Wil- 

loughby, F. Lawson, Fred Hanscom, W. A. Pottle, G. E. Stump, M. C. 

Dunsmore, Charles Parsons, John Lloyd, G. W. Tingle, G. A. 

Wickwire, J. C. Stoddard and W. P. Begg. Dedications, December 

18, 1887 and January 10, 1897. 
Mt. Hope: April 3, 1875. A. S. Elliott, 1875-1880. Disbanded, 1886. 
Mt. Pleasant: June 27, 1841. R. Gaylord, 1841-1843, E. Adams, 

1843-1845, S. Waters, T. Packard, J. C. Cooper, A. J. Drake, J. W. 

Pickett, W. H. Burnard, Robert Nurse, George Cakebread, N. I. Jones, 

J. B. Sharp, 0. W. Rogers, 1883-1900, F. L. Johnson, H. J. Hinman, 

B. Staunton. 

Muscatine: November 29, 1843. A. B. Robbins, 1843-1892 and Emeritus 
until death in 1896. F. T. Lee, W. E. Brooks, L. G. Kent, H. D. Herr, 
J. P. Clyde, B. C. Preston, A. S. Henderson. Dedications, 1846, 1852, 
1857, 1893 and 1908. 

Muscatine German: December 7, 1854. C. F. Veitz, J. W. Judeisch, 
John Schaerer, Jacob Reuth, H. H. Sallenbach, Henry Hetzler, 
Jacob Fath, 1882-1899, Jacob Henn, F. C. F. Scherff, E. C. Osthoff 
and C. M. Dettmers. Dedications, 1855 and 1891. 

Muscatine Pilgrim: May 22, 1894. G. M. D. Slocum, 1894-1897. Dropped 
in 1901. 

Muscatine Mulford: 1809. W. H. Thomlinson. Both this and Pilgrim 
fruits of a mission Sunday School. Dedication, January 20, 1907. 

Murray: 1875-1879. Never a pastor. Only occasional preaching. 

Nashua: August 16, 1866. J. K. Nutting, R. J. Williams, M. B. Page, 
M. Spencer, L. D. Boynton, C. A. Marshall, Thomas Reid, N. L. 
Packard, A. H. Sedgwick, H. C. Scotford, M. Barrett, E. Ewell, 
A. W. Sinden, H. H. Burch. Dedication, July 3, 1870. 

Nevinville: August 30, 1858. Homer Penfield, I. S. Davis, A. V. House, 
Robert Hunter, T. H. Canfield, N. M. Calhoun, A. W. Archibald, H. 
Geer, H. S. Fish, G. M. Orvis, J. H. Skiles, H. L. Wissler, A. G. Wash- 
ington, A. S. Willoughby, O. D. Crawford, J. F. Lansborough, M. H. N. 
Cris. 

Newburg: April 8, 1880. C. H. Eaton, F. H. Magoun, W. L. Coleman. 
Yoked with Gilman, 1884-1887, and since with Chester Center. Dedi- 
cation, November 22, 1896. 

Newell: October 21, 1872. A. V. House, W. J. Smith, T. P. Moulton, 

C. M. Swarzaur, A. Countryman, Philo Gorton, A. A. Baker, J. R. 
Kaye, M. S. Freeman, N. F. Douglass, W. J. Johnson, W. B. Pinkerton, 
E. F. Wheeler, F. H. Anderson, A. E. Prior. Places of worship, stores, 
dwellings, "Eating House." Churches dedicated, May 13, 1873 and 
May 17, 1903. 



350 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

New Hampton: February 14, 1858. T. N. Skinner, H. Adams, T. Bayne, 
J. M. Ridlington, C. A. Marshall, J. Merriam, E. C. Moulton, W. E. 
DeRiemer, C. R. Bruce, I. Brown, J. W. Horner, G. L. Hanscom, W. A. 
Pottle, J. L. Blanchard, C. R. Shatto, J. A. Eakin and Joseph Toms. 
Dedications, December 25, 1866 and July 4, 1886. 

New Hampton German: June 20, 1874. H. Hess, 1874^1893, William 
Dorn, W. C. Zumstein, P. J. Theil, Andrew Kern, E. F. Warkenstein, 
H. Eisener. 

New Jefferson, Green Co.: December, 1866. Survived to 1869. Prob- 
ably went into the Presbyterian Church. E. R. Beach and S. P. 
Goodenow, 1866-1869. 

New Liberty, Scott Co. : October 30, 1858. Yoked with Big Rock. Dis- 
banded, 1873. 

New Providence: November 12, 1865. Yoked with Eldora and Union. 
Dedication, October 27, 1871. Gave way to the Quakers in 1896. 

Newton: September 19, 1856. E. P. Kimball, E. A. Bartlett, D. E. Jones, 
G. H. Beecher, H. E. Barnes, W. L. Bray, D. H. Rogan, R. P. Foster, 
E. D. Eaton, J. E. Bissell, S. F. Dickenson, C. C. Harrah, B. C. Baum- 
gardner, J. W. Cowan, G. L. Smith, A. B. Appleby. Dedications, 
October, 1859 and May 8, 1892. Total accessions over 1000. 

Newtonville: February 10, 1891. Yoked with Quasqueton. Dedica- 
tion, July 10, 1892. 

New York: June 19, 1866. Three pastors, David Knowles, D. B. Eells, 
W. W. Penwell. Only occasional supplies after 1874. Held on until 
1897. 

Nilesville: June 23, 1893. Yoked with Orchard. Dedication, February 
11, 1894. 

Nora Springs: August 23, 1857. S. P. LaDue, Thomas LaDue, L. War- 
ner, J. D. Mason, W. M. Brooks, C. F. Dykeman, W. H. Brocksome, 
N. M. Clute, D. E. Skinner, A. M. Case, A. S. Horine, J. G. Miller, 
Thomas Woodcock, J. P. Dyas, A. M. Pipes, M. Dana, B. E. Marsh, 
H. C. Van Valkenberg, C. T. Halbert. Dedication, October 23, 1887. 

Oak Grove (Vinton) : June 17, 1891. A name to live for two years. 

Oak Grove (Newton): October 4, 1896. E. Durant and S. A. Arnold, 
1896-1901. Disbanded, 1902. 

Oakland: May 3, 1881. G. G. Perkins, D. W. Comstock, C. N. Sinnett, 
J. L. Pierson, J. T. Mumford, E. E. Preston, J. L. Blanchard, D. M. 
Ogilvie, R. E. L. Hayes, W. E. Kunz, J. W. Larkin, A. A. Robertson, 
B. J. Rhodes. Dedication, December 17, 1895. 

Oak Ridge: 1895-1899. Yoked with Agency. 

Ocheyedan: August 28, 1888. Thomas Pell, L. R. Fitch, D. Donaldson, 
W. A. Brintnall, J. L. Brown, J. B. Chase, W. B. Jackson, E. T. Briggs, 



THE CHURCHES IN A NUTSHELL 351 

R. W. Coats, J. F. Glover, F. R. Rawlinson. Dedication, June 11, 

1893. 
Ogden: April 4, 1869. G. W. Palmer, E. H. Martin, L. S. Hand, W. M. 

Brooks, J. G. Sabin, D. D. Tibbetts, S. D. Horine, Robert Stapleton, 

H. G. Cooley, J. C. Stoddard, W. A. Brintnall, A. H. Hooker, J. L. 

Hayden, G. O. Porter, W. T. Seeley, J. T. Marvin, J. D. Lewis. Dedi- 
cations, July 26, 1872 and June 16, 1895. 
Old Man's Creek, Welsh: January 14, 1846. David Knowles, G. W. 

Lewis, M. M. Jones, Evan Griffiths, C. D. Jones, D. E. Evans, J. E. 

Jones, H. P. Roberts, J. J. Evans, J. J. Samuel, William Watkins, J. F. 

Humphries, O. M. Jenkins and J. M. Williams. 
Onawa: June 27, 1858. G. G. Rice, G. L. Woodhull, C. N. Lyman, 1870- 

1890, P. B. West, J. B. Adkins, W. A. Pottle, J. E. McNamara, F. A. 

Zickefoose and Vinton Lee. Dedications in 1871 and January 12, 1902. 
Orchard: April 10, 1877. W. H. Atkinson, J. Alderson, A. H. Claflin, 

C. B. Moody, J. A. Hulett, W. W. Gist, Wm. R. Smith, P. Litts, F. A. 

Slyfield, Wm. M. Reed, S. A. Martin, G. A* Rawson. Buildings, the 

old schoolhouse and new church dedicated November 29, 1903. 
Orient: October 11, 1881. G. M. Orvis, J. H. Skiles, M. D. Archer, 

R. W. Jamison, C. R. Hamilton, C. B. Taylor, W. B. Payne, Abbie R. 

Hinckley, H. O. Lawrence, W. N. Dunham, R. W. Harris, Bertha 

Bowers, E. R. McCorkle, James Scull. Dedications, November 16, 

1884 and June 28, 1903. 
Osage: December 18, 1858. William J. Smith, 1858-1866, A. T. Loring, 

T. O. Douglass, 1868-1882, R. G. Woodbridge, G. W. Reynolds, C. B. 

Moody, W. W. Gist, 1892-1899, B. C. Preston, 1899-1905, H. O. 

Allen since 1906. Dedication in 1860, 1874 and February 16, 1902. 
Oskaloosa: October 27, 1844. B. A. Spaulding, G. B. Hitchcock, W. P. 

Apthorp, J. V. A. Woods, W. A. Westervelt, T. E. Roberts. C. H. 

Gates, G. D. A. Hebard, J. E. Snowden, 1871-1886, C. H. Keys, 

J. Geiger, C. H. Holman, W. L. Bray, A. C. Kaye, J. B. Adkins. Dedi- 
cations, July 24, 1857 and March 3, 1889. 
Osterdock: December 22, 1904. Yoked with Colesburg. 
Otho: April 4, 1855. Thomas Skinner, William Kent, E. J. Boardman, 

C. F. Boynton, A. V. House, George Bent, Julius Stevens, N. McLeod, 

N. L. Burton, F. Fawkes, 1873-1878 and 1889-1904, T. I. James, 

Lidia I. James, J. O. Mallory, C. A. Chambers. Schoolhouse used 

from 1860 to dedication, December 13, 1883. 
Otisville: September 10, 1865. The Dows of today; Harrison, Fawkes 

and Harvey among the pastors. Disbanded in 1894. 
Otley: July 10, 1870. Yoked with Monroe. C. M. Bingham and C. C. 

Harrah. Closed up in 1881. 



352 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Oto: February 20, 1896. W. R. Smith, D. E. Armitage, W. G. Johnston, 
J. R. Beard, O. M. Humphries, W. A. Alcorn, W. E. Sauerman, W. A. 
Hansen. Dedication, February 14, 1899. 

Ottumwa: February 15, 1846. B. A. Spaulding, 1843-1863, Elias Clark, 
Simeon Brown, Harmon Bross, Orlando Clark, S. M. Merrill, J. W. 
Healey, R. M. Thompson, A. W. Archibald, 1880-1887, A. L. Smalley, 
L. F. Berry, 1890-1898, W. A. Kenzie, P. A. Johnson, 1900-1907, 
R. J. Locke. First house completed in 1850, the second, 1877. 

Ottumwa South (Plymouth): L. S. Hand, W. I. Coburn, W. M. VanVleet, 
Allen Clark, J. R. Beard, D. D. Davies, Isaac Cookman, F. A. Zicke- 
foose. Dedications, April 13, 1884 and December 11, 1904. Inherited 
this house from the Methodist Protestant Church which united with 
us in 1904. 

Ottumwa Swede: Organized Free Mission Church in 1880; became Congre- 
gational in 1888. K. F. Larson, N. J. Bohlin, A. L. Anderson, E. 
Pilquist, O. Nystrom, K. G. Fastien, E. A. Wolden, C. F. Olsson, G. N. 
Tegnell, O. F. Dahlberg and H. E. Ek. Buildings, 1886 and 1905. 

Ottumwa Zion : 1897-1901. Yoked with Ottumwa South. 

Owen's Grove: April 7, 1889. Yoked with Rockwell. Now moved to the 
village and name changed to Hanford. Dedication, July 3, 1892. 

Owen Center: December 22, 1901. Yoked with Rockwell. 

Owen South: 1888. Yoked with Rockwell. Dropped in 1900. 

Pacific: November 20, 1864. L. S. WiUiams, O. W. Cooley, M. F. Piatt. 
No pastor after 1874. Disappears in 1879. Town moved up to the 
railroad station at Pacific Junction. 

Parkersburg: May 23, 1869. A. V. House, L. D. Boynton, J. M. Bowers, 
D. J. Baldwin, J. Wadhams, Alexander Parker, B. M. Amsden, G. N. 
Dorsey, E. M. H. Sly, J. P. Richards, A. Countryman, D. M. Brecken- 
ridge, J. Gray, H. C. Calhoun, J. S. Norris, F. G. Brainard, W. G. 
Little, W. B. Sanford, J. P. Clyde, A. L. Dunton, J. K. Schultz, C. A. 
Chambers, J. J. Jones, A. S. Hock, W. P. Begg, W. B. Parden. Dedi- 
cation, December 4, 1870. 

Pekay: Mining camp near Oskaloosa. Only four years of life, 1896-1900. 
Dedicated, June 27, 1897. 

Pella: 1858. Reported in minutes two years, A. V. Baldwin pastor. 

Percival (Civil Bend): March 8, 1861. O. Cummings, G. C. Reed, E. C. 
Taylor, W. C. Foster, J. M. Cumings, J. Wright, C. S. Hamilton, F. W. 
Long, S. R. Brush, L. E. Potter, C. S. Colburn. Dedication, Novem- 
ber 15, 1896. 

Perkins: July 19, 1891. E. H. H. Holman, W. H. Kaufman, Abi L. Pres- 
ton, C. H. Kershaw, J. B. Chase. Dedication, January 24, 1892. 
Dropped, 1902. 



THE CHURCHES IN A NUTSHELL 353 

Perry: December 12, 1883. A. P. Lyon, H. Fowle, J. G. Aikman, G. 
Hurst, J. B. Bidwell, A. D. Kinzer, H. C. Rosenberger, B. F. Cokely, 
Jesse Povey, B. W. Burleigh. Dedications, March 3, 1889 and Janu- 
ary 1, 1905. 

Peterson: April 30, 1882. J. B. Chase, A. M. Beman, R. E. Helms, J. C. 
Stoddard, J. F. Home, 0. L. Corbin, M. H. Galer, W. S. Johnson, A. M. 
Leichliter, J. S. Norris, E. J. B. Salter, J. W. Williams, G. B. Deacon, 
E. E. Reed, C. G. Oxley. Dedications, September 24, 1883 and Novem- 
ber 8, 1908. 

Pilgrim (Creston): April 18, 1875. N. H. Whittlesey, V. C. Bosworth, 
M. T. Rainier, A. E. Mosher, J. R. Beard, A. S. Willoughby, W. E. 
Todd, G. C. Jewell, W. Schumaker, F. A. Hinman, George Milne. 

Pine Creek, German: August 10, 1858. Yoked with German Church of 
Muscatine. Dedicated, July 15, 1863. Disbanded, 1896. 

Pioneer: September 22, 1896. Yoked with Lakeside. 

Pleasant Grove: January 7, 1881. Yoked with Fontanelle. 

Pleasant Prairie: March 3, 1886. Yoked with Quasqueton. Dedication, 
May 30, 1886. 

Pleasant Valley: January 20, 1873. Yoked with Fort Dodge. Lived 
only two years. 

Pleasantville, Marion Co.: January 8, 1851. Yoked with Red Rock. 
Disappears in 1860. 

Plymouth: 1858. Thomas Tenney, J. D. Mason, S. P. LaDue, 1858- 
1870. Nothing after that. 

Polk City: April 3, 1858. J. S. Cook, J. K. Nutting, E. Cleveland, William 
Apthorp, G. W. Palmer, Alexander Parker, L. S. Hand, J. Grawe, R. W. 
Hughes, R. F. Lavender, S. A. Arnold, L. C. Bellsmith, A. S. Houston, 
J. W. Buck, E. V. Menzer, O. D. Crawford, J. H. Mintier. Dedica- 
tions, 1863, January 30, 1870, October 22, 1899 and December 4, 1904. 

Popejoy: June 23, 1895. Charles Wyatt, P. Litts, J. B. Gonzales, W. D. 
Williams, J. Wagner, J. H. Scull, T. B. Couchman. Dedication, Febru- 
ary 23, 1896. 

Portland: June 17, 1900. Yoked with Owen's Grove, Mason City and 
sometimes Nora Springs. 

Postville: April 5, 1856. D. B. Davidson, C. R. French, J. L. Atkinson, 
W. H. Barrows, G. F. Bronson, C. A. Marshall, Jas. A. Hoyt, L. P. 
Mathews, H. H. Robbins, A. S. Houston, C. S. Newhall, A. F. Loomis, 
J. W. Ferner, J. O. Thrush, N. L. Burton, L. S. Hand, S. W. Pollard, 
T. M. Higginbotham, D. W. Blakely, F. W. Pease. Dedications, 
September 12, 1867 and October 31, 1897. 

Prairie City: February 28, 1868. C. H. Eaton, J. Alexander, W. J. Smith, 
Charles Slater, E. L. Sherman, J. W. Ferner, G. H. Sharpley, W. W. 

24 



354 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Hazen, J. J. Mitchell, W. C. Barber, R. G. Hall, A. A. Thorn. Dedi- 
cated, December 3, 1891 and rededicated, October 18, 1903. 

Prairie Hill: March 17, 1886. Yoked with Polk City. Dropped in 1898. 

Preston (Van Buren): June 2, 1856. O. Emerson, D. B. Eells, Alexander 
Parker, 1879-1886, W. E. DeRiemer, W. H. Burnard, G. W. Sargent, 
D. McDermid, S. A. Wheelwright, M. A. Frost, J. L. Blanchard, W. H. 
Thomlinson, E. R. McCorkle. Dedicated, December 2, 1888. 

Primghar: March 20, 1888. D. L. Strong, N. L. Burton, T. G. Langdale, 
J. C. Stoddard, D. E. Skinner, James Parsons, C. L. French, H. H. 
Burch, F. C. Lewis, C. H. Gilmore, L. M. Pierce. Dedications, July 27, 
1890, December 15, 1895 and June 5, 1910. 

Puritan: December 31, 1888. During its short life of two or three years 
yoked with Webster City. 

Quasqueton: June 20, 1853. A. Wright, B. Roberts, H. N. Gates, A. 
Manson, C. Dane, E. G. Carpenter, G. N. Dorsey, W. S. Potwin, G. M. 
Orvis, P. Gorton, A. G. Benton, D. W. Blakeley, E. J. B. Salter, F. A. 
Slyfield, R. Mumby, H. J. Richardson and A. A. Thorn. Dedications 
in 1853 and December 14, 1890. 

Quincy: October 21, 1865. A. V. House, J. D. Sands and S. Barrows, 
1865-1869. Transferred to Corning, 1869. 

Radcliffe: July 4, 1897. E. H. H. Holman, J. Fitt, L. B. Bickford. Dis- 
banded, 1906. 

Red Oak: October 8, 1870. O. W. Cooley, G. C. Hicks, G. Dobson, 
C. T. Melvin, J. Allender, 1876-1884, E. A. Leeper, E. C. Moulton, 
G. L. Smith, C. P. Boardman, G. E. Ladd. Dedications, 1884 and 
1890. 

Red Oak South: July 9, 1894. Thos. D. Thomas, E. H. Davis (Salvation 
Army), 1894-1901. Disbanded, 1904. 

Red Rock: January 1, 1851. J. V. A. Woods, J. S. Francis, J. Mather, 
A. V. Baldwin. Drops out in 1859. 

Reinbeck: September 30, 1877. C. H. Bissell, E. H. Martin, C. W. Wiley, 
R. H. Thomas, E. E. Webber, Samuel Eveland, W. L. Brandt, H. E. 
Warner, Robert Stapleton, L. M. Pierce, O. H. L. Mason, A. W. Moore, 
C. E. Tower, P. H. Ralph, A. W. Sinden. Dedications, 1878 and May 
22, 1904. 

Riceville (Jamestown): September 4, 1858. Edwin Teel, W. L. Cole- 
man, C. S. Marvin, W. F. Harvey, S. Penfield, O. A. Thomas, J. H. 
Skiles, J. A. Brown, Abbie R. Hinckley, L. N. Pierce, N. L. Packard, 
T. C. Hunt, S. J. Huffman. Dedications, October 13, 1869 and Decem- 
ber 28, 1902. 

Rock Creek: A little country field in Jackson County, 1855-1864, supplied 
by O. Littlefield and others. 



THF CHURCHES IN A NUTSHELL 355 

Rock Falls (formerly Shell Rock): August 10, 1856. Yoked with Nora 
Springs and Plymouth; supplied by Father Tenney, J. D. Mason, C. F. 
Dykeman, etc. Disbanded in 1885. 

Rockford: February 27, 1858. S. P. LaDue, L. Warner, T. K. Bixby, 
G. A. Paddock, J. B. Gilbert, C. F. Dykeman, S. S. Grinnell, G. M. D. 
Slocum, H. H. Morse, C. E. Taggart, E. L. Ely, J. L. Jones, L. M. 
Pierce, G. R. Chambers, G. A. McKinley, C. E. Lynde, F. I. Hans- 
com, H. R. Core. Dedications, June, 1865 and June, 1883. 

Rock Grove: August 23, 1857. Yoked with Rockford. Disbanded in 
1869. 

Rock Rapids: June 13, 1878. J. E. McNamara, Amos Jones, C. H. Morse, 
A. P. Lyon, F. B. Hicks, G. G. Perkins, W. B. Pinkerton, A. G. Williams, 
F. G. Beardsley, F. A. Zickefoose, H. H. Burch and C. H. Gilmore. 
Dedication, July 13, 1884. 

Rockwell: April 26, 1873. W. P. Bennett, C. J. Richardson, W. H. Brock- 
some, James Alderson, D. E. Skinner, C. Douglass, D. G. Youker, 
1892-1903, A. A. Robertson, V. B. Hill, L. D. Blandford. Dedica- 
tion, 1878. 

Rodney: April 10, 1893. M. DeLano, G. W. Tingle, G. G. Perkins, J. L. 
Brown, W. T. Seeley, W. E. Sauerman, W. A. Hansen. Dedication, 
October 22, 1893. 

Rome: May 25, 1866. Yoked with Mt Pleasant and Glasgow. Dedi- 
cation, 1870. Disbanded, 1889. 

Rome, Jones Co.: January 5, 1845. Care of E. Alden. Disbanded in 
1846. 

Rossie: January 21, 1901. Harley Core supplied summer vacation. Dis- 
banded, 1903. 

Rowan: June 10, 1890. S. A. Martin, C. A. Chambers, V. A. Carlton 
since 1906. Dedication, November 30, 1890. 

Runnels: February 18, 1893. R. C. Moulton, A. M. Leichliter, J. A. High, 
L. F. Bufkin, J. F. Lansborough, L. S. Hand, W. A. Alcorn, E. S. Mc- 
Clure, H. M. Peterson. Dedication, August 12, 1894. 

Ruthven: June 22, 1900. Survived only four years. Supplied about half 
of the time by A. M. Leichliter and F. E. Carter. 

Sabula (Charleston): December 14, 1845. O. Emerson, 1841-1844, 
1845-1855, 1861-1867, Philip Bevan, A. Harper, J. M. Smith, D. R. 
McNab, F. Herbrechter, D. B. Eells, J. Alderson, E. J. Beach, William 
Chappel, D. M. Breckenridge, W. E. DeRiemer, D. McDermid, D. E. 
Smith, M. A. Frost, W. H. Thomlinson, James Parker. Dedications, 
1855 and 1872. 

Salem: May 29, 1853. J. C. Cooper, J. R. Kennedy, S. Hemenway, J. A. 
Hallock, J. S. Bans, C. F. Dykeman, L. T. Rowley, D. D. Tibbetts, 



356 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

William Jones, J. Davies, J. P. Dyas, F. G. Beardsley, C. E. Drew, 
A. S. Henderson, J. T. Roberts, J. J. Jones, M. T. Butcher. Dedica- 
tions, April 22, 1854 and November 24, 1889. 

Saratoga: June 17, 1891. Yoked with Elma and Riceville. 

Scott Center: July 5, 1857. Organized and supplied by D. Lane while 
Prof. I. C. at Davenport. Became an O. S. Presbyterian Church in 1859. 

Seneca: July 14, 1869. O. Littlefield and William Spell, 1869 and 1876. 
Disbanded, 1880. 

Sergeant Bluffs: April 5, 1876. A. M. Beman, A. A. Baker, D. W. 
Comstock, E. L. Sherman, John Gray, J. M. Turner, J. B. Chase. 
Dedication, December 4, 1887. 

Shelby, German: 1891. Andrew Kern, 1891-1893. Disbanded in 1894. 

Shelbyville: 1877. J. Copeland and J. S. Fisher, 1876-1881. Disbanded, 
1882. 

Sheldon: August 18, 1872. H. D. Wiard, J. A. Palmer, E. Southworth, 
L. W. Brintnall, T. W. Cole, G. L. Hanscom, J. M. Cumings, W. L. 
Bray, 1899-1908, C. M. Westlake. Dedications, October 3, 1886 and 
February 23, 1902. 

Shell Rock: December 30, 1891. J. D. Wells, O. H. L. Mason, M. Barrett, 
George Marsh, A. L. Dunton, W. D. Spiker, M. C. Haecker, G. A. 
McKinley, J. T. Marvin, F. E. Cane, J. J. Watson. Dedication, July 
23, 1893. 

Shenandoah: April 8, 1877. William Plasted, J. 0. Stevenson, 1880- 
1887, J. H. Bogges, E. C. Moulton, J. T. Robert, George Peebles, 
C. R. Shatto, A. S. Henderson, W. A. Schwimley, W. J. Turner. Dedi- 
cation, June 16, 1878. 

Sherrill's Mound German: September 9, 1849. J. B. Madoulet, A. 
Frowein, S. Uhlfelder, C. F. Veitz, J. Shearer, R. Gys, H. Hetzler, J. 
Reuth, Carl Hess, John Single, Gottfried Grob, E. Von Nussbaum, 
William Loos, E. F. Warkenstein, George Hein since 1906. 

Sibley: October 3, 1873. B. A. Dean, D. J. Baldwin, Thomas Pell, J. D. 
Whitelaw, W. W. Mead, E. L. Sherman, J. C. Stoddard, F. L. Hans- 
com, P. B. West, Jonathan Gray, C. H. Seccombe, A. C. Bowdish, W. H. 
Moore, W. A. Schwimley. Dedications, 1874 and 1899. 

Silver Creek: February 13, 1886. S. B. Goodenow, Charles Wyatt, M. D. 
Reed, G. W. Nelson, R. L. McCord, W. R. Smith, C. E. Tower, D. D. 
McSkimming, A. A. Baker, C. M. Humphries, J. Kirkwood, C. Corbett, 
E. M. Keeler, W. H. Ogle, Geo. E. Brown. Dedication, July 26, 1891. 

Sioux City First: August 9, 1857. Wanted a minister in 1851. M. 
Tingley, 1861-1867, J. H. Morley, 1869-1876, J. W. McLoney, J. R. 
Chalmers, E. P. Chittenden, M. W. Darling, 1886-1900, F. N. White, 
J. W. Frizzell, W. L. Tenney, W. M. Short Dedications, 1862 and 
1890. 



THE CHURCHES IN A NUTSHELL 357 

Sioux City Bellevista: May 17, 1897. Supplied irregularly from May- 
flower and Riverside. Disbanded, 1906. 
Sioux City German: 1890. F. Egerland, C. W. Wuerrschmidt, Gottfried 

Wenning, 1890-1896, Dedication, September 14, 1891. Disbanded, 

1898. 
Sioux City Mayflower: March 31, 1887. E. L. Sherman, R. W. Jamison, 

1888-1897, H. L. Preston, George Willet, L. M. Pierce, E. C. Wolcott. 

Dedication, September 18, 1904. 
Sioux City Pilgrim: March 29, 1885. J. B. Chase, J. E. McNamara, 

A. M. Pipes, W. A. Pottle, E. E. H. Holman, J. L. Brown. Dedica- 
tion, February 7, 1886. Disbanded, 1898. 
Sioux City Riverside: July 6, 1893. R. W. Jamison, E. E. H. Holman, 

Mrs. A. O. Nichols, W. Brown, C. L. Marzolf, H. Booth. Dedication, 

February 23, 1908. 
Sioux Rapids: November 4, 1875. W. J. Smith, A. M. Beman, E. P. 

Hughes, W. C. Hicks, James Burns, T. C. Walker, J. K. Nutting, F. L. 

Fisk, Ira Holbrook, R. T. Jones, D. R. Martin. Chapel, 1881; church 

December 23, 1888. 
Slater: March 24, 1891. H. E. Warner, B. C. Tillitt, G. A. Conrad, G. L. 

McDougall. Dedication, December 27, 1897. Disbanded, 1902. 
Sloan: October 9, 1879. A. M. Beman, A. A. Baker, D. W. Comstock, 

J. Marsland, E. L. Sherman, J. E. McNamara, G. N. Stump, R. F. 

Paxton, H. K. Hawley, B. E. Marsh, J. T. Blanchard, W. J. Frost. 

Building 1886; destroyed by cyclone; restored 1890. 
Smithland: June 26, 1889. Yoked with Rodney. 
Soldier River: December 21, 1883. C. E. Marsh, G. F. Jewel and C. P. 

Boardman. Dedication, December 14, 1884. Disbanded, 1895. 
Solon: January 7, 1844. E. Alden's first field. Soon dropped because an 

O. S. Presbyterian Church was organized, but service continued for 

a time by Tipton pastors. 
South Herdland: February 16, 1906. Yoked with Greenville, J. B. Chase, 

1905-1907. 
Spencer: March 19, 1872. W. L. Coleman, J. M. Cumings, G. G. Perkins, 

J. O. Thrush, 1891-1899 and 1910-, G. A. Taylor and E. E. Day, 

1902-1909. Dedications, "Fall of 1875" and July 16, 1893. 
Spirit Lake: October 7, 1872. J. R. Upton, 1869-1880, A. M. Beman 

and J. R. Upton, 1882-1883. Presbyterianized in 1884. 
Spring Lake: December 1, 1893. Occasional supply from Waverly. 

Dropped out in 1897. 
Stacyville: January 18, 1857. W. L. Coleman, 1856-1867, J. B. Parlin, 

T. Tenney, Charles Hancock, George Stirling, W. H. Barrows, N. H. 

Blackmer, F. W ? Gardner, D r Blakeley, E. P ? Allen, W. E. Sauerman, 



358 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

M. J. P. Thing. Dedication in 1860. Disbanded after a career of 
great usefulness in 1904. 

St. Ansgar: October 25, 1899. Yoked with Stacyville and Mitchell. 
Dropped out 1903. 

Stanton: Pastor, J. A. Hallock, 1882-1883. Disbanded in 1886. 

Steamboat Rock: Presbyterian beginning, 1856. Congregational, June 
22, 1897. W. C. Hicks, A. A. Baker, G. T. Holcombe, W. E. Paul, 
J. Thorn, H. H. Pitman. Dedication, March, 1865. 

Sterling: April, 1854. Oliver Emerson, A. Harper, F. Herbrechter, J. 
Alderson, E. J. Beach. Given up with Union meeting house to the 
Methodists in 1886. 

Stillwater: June 22, 1894. Yoked with Orchard. Dedication, Novem- 
ber 6, 1898. 

Storm Lake: 1880. J. B. Chase, George Morton, F. H. Magoun, J. E. 
Snowden, J. W. Ferner, O. V. Rice. Presbyterianized May 7, 1895. 

Strawberry Point: February 14, 1872. B. M. Amsden, Charles Hancock, 
P. Gorton, I. N. Tomes, J. Chandler, W. H. Kaufman, J. G. Aikman, 
M. Barrett, G. O. Smith, J. W. Buck, C. L. Snowden, V. F. Brown, 
D. O. Bean, A. Marsh, F. A. Dean, C. E. Drew, 0. M. Van Swearingen. 
Dedication, March 16, 1884. 

Stuart: June 12, 1871. J. Gadd, W. B. Bachtelle, E. G. Carpenter, A. E. 
Todd, H. P. Roberts, A. W. Archibald, G. W. Reynolds, A. S. Badger, 
H. M. Case, G. A. Taylor, E. H. H. Holman, F. M. Chaffee, H. W. Still- 
man, W. A. Briggs. Dedications, July 14, 1872 and March 6, 1904. 

Sutherland: 1882. R. E. Helms and J. C. Stoddard, 1882-1886. Dis- 
banded in 1887. 

Swanton: 1895. Yoked with Parkersburg. Dropped out in 1899. 

Tabor: October 12, 1852: John Todd, 1852-1883 and Emeritus to 1894. 
J. W. Cowan, 1885-1894, A. R. Thain, John Askin, J. W. Ferner and 
C. F. Fisher. Places of worship, Todd's Cabin, schoolhouse, Col. 
Chapel, 1858-1875; then the church. Dedication, June, 1875. 

Talmage: April 30, 1887. Yoked with Peterson, etc. Dropped out in 1902. 

Teed's Grove: 1854. One of Father Emerson's Union Churches. M. E. 
mostly, and wholly after 1898. 

Templeton: May 1, 1876. Little Welsh church in Carroll county. Re- 
ports meager. Little pastoral service, but still extant. 

Terrill: December 17, 1899. Yoked with Milford. No pastor since 1906. 
Dedication, September 14, 1902. 

Thompson: 1895. Yoked with Buffalo Center. Dedication, May 10, 
1896 and November 25, 1901. 

Tipton: May 5, 1844. E. Alden, W. A. Keith, H. W. Cobb, M. K. Cross, 
1855-1866, C. S. Harrison, G. S. Briscoe, 1868-1875, A, W, Thomp- 



THE CHURCHES IN A NUTSHELL 359 

son, C. S. Newhall, A. G. Brande, B. F. Paul, N. L. Burton, H. P. 

Douglass, H. Long. Dedication, December 9, 1866. Disbanded, 1898. 
Toledo: December 30, 1854. T. N. Skinner, G. H. Woodworth, 1856- 

1867, Reed Wilkinson, J. B. Gilbert, T. D. Childs, G. Rindell, S. J. 

Buck, H. W. Parker, F. J. Douglass, C. E. Blodgett, G. M. D. Slocum, 

J. B. Chase, J. W. Nelson, L. E. Potter, J. A. Holmes, W. A. Briggs, 

I. A. Holbrook, H. H. Pitzer. Dedications, December 13, 1860 and 

April 8, 1900. 
Traer (Twelve Mile Creek, Buckingham) : June 22, 1856. J. R. Upton, B. 

Roberts, 1862-1870, H. Mills, J. B. Gilbert, C. H. Bissell, J. S. Bingham, 

1882-1891, I. Brown, O. O. Smith, W. A. Hobbs, W. E. Bovey, F. C. 

Gonzales. Dedications, June, 1867 and October 22, 1901. 
Treynor: September 1, 1901. Carl Zumstein, A. Kern and Jacob Fath. 

Dedication, February 9, 1902. 
Tripoli: September 11, 1900. Formerly Free Will Baptist. J. S. Norris, 

M. McLean, F. A. Dean, A. B. Keeler, F. W. Ward, W. A. McCorkle, 

R. K. Chapman. Building purchased from the Baptists. 
Trivoli: January 25, 1851. H. N. Gates and J. 'R. Upton, 1851-1853. 

Dropped out in 1860. 
Troy Mills: January 7, 1865. E. C. Downs, William Spell, J. M. Frey, 

C. Dane, G. C. Lockridge, W. S. Potwin, P. Litts. Disbanded, 1893. 
Tyson's Mills : November 21, 1868. Yoked with Otho. Soon disappeared. 
Ulster: 1858. Yoked with Rockford. Disbanded in 1884. 
Union: April 16, 1871. A. D. Kinzer, W. M. Brooks, F. J. Douglass, 

W. C. Hicks, H. E. Warner, P. Litts, J. P. Clyde, C. R. Hunt, E. H. H. 

Holman, J. B. Gonzales, M. Barrett, J. H. Armstrong, H. J. Wilkins. 

Dedications, first Sunday January, 1875 and April 26, 1908. 
Valley Junction: November 5, 1895. F. L. Johnson, J. W. Horner, G. L. 

Marsh, W. C. Barber, F. H. Richardson, G. O. Thompson. Dedica- 
tion in 1898. 
Van Cleve (Logan) : May 22, 1870. G. G. Poague, S. A. Arnold, S. A. 

Martin, C. E. Tower, Ira Hambleton, L. S. Hand, and various Iowa 

College students. Building erected, 1878; moved in 1884. 
Victor: February 13, 1883. Formerly Presbyterian. C. E. Blodgett, 

H. L. Marsh, James Rowe, W. B. Paine, E. Kent, R. D. Douglass, C. E. 

Cushman, C. W. Hempstead. House purchased in 1883. Rededicated, 

November 24, 1901. 
Vining: October 18, 1893. Jonathan Musil, 1888-1891, F. T. Bastel, 

1889-1893. Anton Paulu since 1893. 
Wall Lake: June 27, 1893. Yoked with Gait. Dedication, May 6, 1894. 
WapeUo: May 7, 1853. A. L. Leonard, E. C. A. Woods and J. J. Hill, 

1853-1856. Disbanded, 1864. 



360 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Warren, Lee Co.: September, 1849. D. B. Nichols, R. Winchell, A. R. 
Mitchell and D. B. Eells, 1849-1867. Disbanded, 1876. 

Washington: February 27, 1842. Charles Burnham, pastor. Reorganized 
as Crooked Creek, 1845, but at once disappeared. Reorganized as 
Washington Church December 3, 1855. C. H. Gates, A. B. Hitchcock, 
O. Tade, M. K. Cross, P. Canfield, and G. M. Landon. Died in good 
health 1877. History must protest against the disbanding of this 
church. 

Washta: December 26, 1886. L. R. Fitch, G. H. Smith, J. F. Horne, S. 
Simpson, A. A. Baker, H. A. Simpson, R. E. Helms, C. H. Gilmore, 
F. K. Luxford, W. E. Sauerman. 

Waterford, Clinton Co.: February 21, 1859. Littlefield and Keith, 1857- 
1864. Dropped out 1865. 

Waterloo: September 29, 1856. Thomas S. LaDue, J. S. Whittlesey, 
O. W. Merrill, S. B. Goodenow, E. S. Palmer, W. H. Marble, George 
Thatcher, A. A. Ellsworth, H. S. DeForest, C. B. Welles, J. H. Windsor, 
J. O. Stevenson, 1886-1898, A. A. Tanner, C. H. Seccombe and W. H. 
Rollins. Dedications, August 23, 1860, September 20, 1888 and April 
5, 1908. 

Waterloo Plymouth: May 29, 1910. L. B. Hix. Church starts with fifty- 
nine members. 

Waterloo Union: January 27, 1907. Grew out of a Union Sunday School. 
A. B. Keeler, V. M. Patterson, L. A. Brink. Chapel built by bequest 
of Mrs. Judd of Cedar Falls. 

Waucoma: October 7, 1874. A. V. House, H. Lees, H. Kent, C. C. Hum- 
phrey, P. Litts, W. W. Lewis, M. S. Freeman, V. B. Hill, N. E. Han- 
nant, R. E. House, M. A. Frost, W. W. Tuttle. Dedications, January 

9, 1875 and October 25, 1891. 

Waukon: April 21, 1864. Alexander Parker, W. J. Smith, L. D. Boynton 

and W. F. Rose. Disbanded, 1870. 
Waverly: January 16, 1865. E. S. Palmer, M. K. Cross, W. H. 

Rice, J. G. Spencer, R. M. O'Neill, G. R. Ransom, A. M. Case, P. 

Gorton, George White, W. B. Pinkerton, V. F. Brown, J. E. Brere- 

ton and A. R. Rice. Dedications, February 1, 1866 and October 17, 

1907. 
Wayne (Olds): October 7, 1854. E. P. Smith, 1854-1868. S. B. Mc- 

Duffee, L. S. Hand, S. Eveland, C. C. Humphrey, W. E. Sauerman, 

F. J. Douglass, J. C. George, O. L. McCleery, J. J. Hales, A. Heddle. 

Dedication, October 2, 1856. Moved to Olds, 1897. Remodeled and 

rededicated, January 4, 1903. 
Weaver: March 13, 1889. Yoked with Humboldt. Dedicated November 

10, 1889. 



THE CHURCHES IN A NUTSHELL 361 

Webster: October 27, 1866. Originally South English. D. B. Eells, 

F. Craig, J. E. Morse, H. L. Snodgrass, N. H. Blackmer, E. Marsh, 

H. S. Rosenberger, A. S. Willoughby, F. G. Beardsley, J. C. George, 

F. E. Matlock, L. V. Shemerhorn, J. E. Grinnell, E. C. Chevis, D. M. 

Lower. Dedication, October 27, 1871. 
Webster City: October 12, 1855. First seven years irregular services. 

T. N. Skinner, 1856-1857 and 1858-1889. After 1862, W. H. Osborn 

($150 from the people and $350 from the Home Mission Society), W. P. 

Harvey, G. R. Ransom, D. N. Bordwell, J. E. Wheeler, J. D. Wells, 

J. S. Norris, J. T. Blanchard, C. P. Boardman, J. O. Thrush, 1889- 

1910, A. Metcalf. Dedications, February 21, 1864, January 21, 1871 

and January 18, 1891. 
Wentworth (Now Mclntire): October 30, 1868. Yoked with Riceville. 

Dedication, October 25, 1894. 
Wesley English: June 15, 1897. J. D. Mason and A. S. McConnell, 1897- 

1899. Dedication, October 31, 1897. 
Wesley Second: 1886. L. C. Johnson, C. 0„ Torgeson, Jens Pederson, 

Carl Bloom and C. E. Nelson. Dedication, January 27, 1889. 
West Burlington: April 6, 1884. W. H. Buss, E. P. Smith, W. E. Holyoke, 

C. P. Boardman, C. N. Thomas, C. R. Shatto, F. A. Zickefoose, J. E. 

Grinnell, A. F. Marsh, D. W. Phillips. Dedication, September 14, 

1884. 
Westfield: July 12, 1898. G. A. McKinley, 0. E. Tichenor, W. T. Seeley, 

W. A. Brintnall, E. T. Briggs, John James. Dedication, April 9, 

1899. 
Westport: March 8, 1894. Yoked with Milford. Dropped out 1903. 
West Union: January 1, 1854. S. D. Helms, S. Hulbert, 1854-1861. 

Dropped out in 1861. 
Whiting: April 20, 1892. One of C. N. Lyman's "Appointments," Branch 

of Onawa from 1885. Pastors, G. H. Croker, Benjamin James, D. D. 

McSkimming, M. Barrett, A. R. Heaps. Dedication, November 5, 

1893. 
Williamsburg: February, 1858. W. P. Gale, J. J. Hill, B. T. Jones, William 

A. Patten, H. L. Clark, M. D. Archer, George Ritchie. Dedication, 

November 5, 1871. Dropped in 1883. 
Williamsburg Welsh: March, 1856. Evan J. Evans, Henry Davies, R. E. 

Roberts, W. R. Griffith, Abram Jones, Thos. D. Rhys, D. M. George. 
Wilton: June 20, 1856. Organized as Sugar Creek church in 1854. Moved 

to Wilton Village and reorganized in 1856. David Knowles, 1854-1858, 

E. P. Kimball, J. S. Whittlesey, E. Cleveland, H. L. Bullen, C. Allen, 

M. B. Starr, M. Smith, D. E. Jones, Thomas Douglass and E f P. Smith, 

Dedications in 1857 and 1874. 



362 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Wilton German: January 3, 1895. Connected with the German English 
College. Discontinued in 1904 when the college moved to Redfield, 
S. D. 

Winthrop: March 11, 1865. A. Manson, William Spell, L. W. Brintnall, 
E. G. Carpenter, R. Foster, G. M. Orvis, C. B. Carlisle, A. L. Dunton, 
D. W. Spiker, W. G. Ramsay, L. B. Wadleigh and B. H. Cheney. Dedi- 
cation, February 13, 1870. 

Wittemberg (formerly Presbyterian): Congregational. November 24, 
1865. Geo. G. Poage, S. J. Whitton, Jonathan White, A. A. Whitmore, 
C. C. Starbuck, S. A. Arnold, Thomas Merrill, J. J. Mitchell, 1883- 
1890, W. N. Dunham, E. Durant, A. J. Benton, R. F. Lavender since 
1903. Dedication, 1857. 

Woden: February 5, 1899. N. L. Packard, C. G. Oxley, E. C. Chevis, 
C. W. Hemstead, T. C. Briggs, J. H. Scull, Mrs. E. M. Remington, Asa 
Lillie. Dedication, November 19, 1899. 

Wooster: February 26, 1866. R. Wilkinson, James Barnett, A. J. Bel- 
knap. Dropped from Minutes in 1886. 

Yankee Settlement (1848-1858), York (1858-1876) since then Edgewood: 
Organized March 5, 1848. Pastors, E. B. Turner, 1848-1853, H. N. 
Gates, A. Graves, L. P. Mathews, B. M. Amsden, Charles Hancock, 
P. Gorton, A. S. Kaye, D. D. Kidd, J. W. Elser, S. R. Batty, A. J. Ben- 
ton, H. J. Richardson, M. J. P. Thing. Dedications, 1854 and 1892. 



Chapter XVII 

WHO'S WHO 

This chapter is an attempt to list alphabetically the Pilgrim 
pastors of the decades, locating each, and a little more- fully 
sketching a few. The list is not complete chiefly because the 
records are not. For a number of years the Welsh associa- 
tions were not reported at all. Doubtless some have been 
inadvertently overlooked; and the names of a few have been 
purposely omitted because they simply passed through the 
state, and their ministry was of no significance because so 
brief. 

Of necessity, for lack of space, the sketches are fragmentary, 
and condensed almost to nothingness. Some, however, would 
have been a little more complete if the information could have 
been secured. We looked in vain through the Minutes, the 
Year Book, and the Congregational Quarterly for the obitu- 
aries of many who had finished their labors here. We have 
been obliged to make out the records of many of the brethren 
by simply following them year after year through the intri- 
cacies, inaccuracies, and contradictions of the Minutes and the 
Year Book. So the things written in this chapter are only 
measurably correct. But here is a list of more than thirteen 
hundred of the leaders of our Pilgrim hosts in Iowa, and of the 
fields in which they wrought; and here are suggestions of 
centuries of heroic service in the making of the commonwealth, 
and the building of the Kingdom. 

Abbott, Ephraim, E. P. Of New England birth and education. Pastor 
Cedar Rapids First, 1884-1886. Later in New England and California. 

Ablett, John C. Pastor at Alton, 1894-1895 and 1897-1899. Went into 
business, 

363 



364 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Adams, Calvin C. Born in Virginia, 1813. Montour, 1867-1874. Died, 

Cedar Falls, October, 1906. 
Adams, Ephraim. One of the Band. See Chapters IV and XIII. 
Adams, Harvey. One of the Band. See Chapters IV and XII. 
Adams, P. R. Only pastorate in Iowa at Fontanelle, 1880-1881. 
Adkins, J. B. Born in Iowa. Graduate Iowa College, Onawa, 1892-1895, 

Oskaloosa, 1908-. 
Aikman, Joseph G. Perry, Strawberry Point and Fontanelle, 1889-1893. 

Went to the Presbyterians. 
Albert, John H. Born in Pennsylvania. Pastorate, Green Mountain, 1884- 

1886. Later in Minnesota. 
Albert, Michael. German Extraction. Kingsley, 1891-1894. 
Albright, E. H. Born in Iowa. A Cumberland Presbyterian. Congrega- 
tional work at Gaza and Clay, 1905-. 
Alcorn, William A. Runnells and Earlville, 1904-1907. 
Alden, Ebenezer. One of the Band. See Chapters IV and XII. 
Alderson, James. A primitive Methodist. Sabula, Central City, Orchard, 

etc., 1876-1886. Died, September, 1893. 
Allen, A. S. Clear Lake, 1868-1875. See Chapter X. 
Allen, Edward P. Born Harpoot, Turkey. Kellogg and Stacyville, 1888- 

1891. 
Allen, Herbert O. Born in Vermont. Work mostly in Ohio. Osage, 1906-. 
Allen, William W. New York, 1829. Iowa City, 1860-1863, Council 

Bluffs, 1863-1865. 
Allender, John. Born, New London, Conn. Prairie City, Glen wood, Red 

Oak, 1871-1887. Died, 1907. 
Alvord, Alanson. Pastorates in Illinois. Le Claire, 1857-1858. 
Ambrose, Matthias A. From the U. B. Church. Belle Plaine, 1882- 

1884. 
Amsden, Benjamin M. Native of New York. Served various churches, 

Dubuque Association, Quasqueton, Edgewood, Strawberry Point, etc., 

from 1871 to 1893, the year of his death. 
Anderson, Frank H. Born in Illinois, 1870. Newell, 1905-1909. Moline, 

111., 1909-. 
Andridge, Andrew A. One of the men raised up in Iowa. Hawarden, 

1885-1888. 
Anthony, Charles W. Grandview, Farmington, Dickens and Genoa 

Bluffs, 1897-1904. 
Appleby, Andrew B. Raised in Methodist Episcopal Church, South, but 

attended Drury. Newton, 1904-1910. 
Apthorp, Rufus. Native of Massachusetts (1828). De Witt and Big Rock, 

1871-1886. Die4 in Ohio, December, 1909. 



k WHO'S WHO 365 

Apthorp, William P. Born, Quincy, Mass., 1806. Denmark, 1836-1838. 
Oskaloosa, Polk City and Bowen's Prairie, 1848-1866. Died, March, 
1883. 

Archer, Marmaduke D. Born in England (1820). Iowa Churches, Genoa 
Bluffs, Wells, Orient, etc., 1874-1890. Died, November, 1906. 

Armitage, David E. Oto, 1897-1899, then went into business. 

Archibald, Andrew W. Nevinville, Fontanelle, Stuart and Ottumwa, 
1876-1887. Davenport Edwards, 1888-1892 ; then went to New England. 

Armstrong, Fred A. Born in Tennessee (1819). Clay, Brighton, Bentons- 
port, 1849-1851. Died in 1899. 

Armstrong, J. H. Terrill, Union, Dunlap, 1905-1910. 

Arnold, Arthur E. Le Mars, 1876-1881. Fairfield, 1889-1890; then to 
Illinois. 

Arnold, Seth A. Born in Ohio (1839). Graduate, Iowa College. Wittem- 
berg, Garden Prairie, Jewell, Polk City, etc., 1875-1891. Died, 1907. 

Askin, John. Council Bluffs, Tabor, 1893-1904. Later in South Dakota. 

Atkinson, John L. Postville, Iowa Falls, Earlville, 1869-1873. Missionary 
to Japan. Died, December, 1908. 

Atkinson, William H. Born England (1838). Orchard, Green Mountain, 
Chester, 1876-1890. Died, December, 1907. 

Atkinson, Robert K. Bethlehem Davenport, 1907-1909. Since then at 
Berea. (Bethlehem and German merged.) 

Avery, Henry. Born in Ohio (1831). College Springs, 1878-1888, Mon- 
tour, 1889-1899. Died, August, 1909. 

Avery, William. (Connecticut, 1816.) Rhode Island, New York, Connec- 
ticut, Hampton, Chapin, 1858-1875. Died, 1885. 

Axtell, Archie G. Alden, 1908-1910. Then went into A. M. A. work in 
Porto Rico. 

Badger, Alfred S. Came from Presbyterians and returned after pastorates 
at Stuart and Hampton, 1886-1892. 

Baker, Ariel A. Born Enosburg, Vt. (1825). Manchester, Ames, Eldora, 
Sloan, Newell, Kellogg, Sergeant's Bluffs, Independence, Washta, Fair- 
fax, Silver Creek, Keck and Steamboat Rock, 1867-1901. Pastorates 
also in California and Nebraska. Died, May, 1903. 

Baker, Joseph D. Danville, 1878-1882. Returned to Illinois. 

Baldwin, David J. Mitchell, Iowa Falls, Sibley, Kellogg, 1871-1886. Died, 
January, 1910. 

Ball, James E. Iowa, 1876. Farmington, 1906-1909, Robbinsdale, Minn., 
1909-. 

Bangs, Frederick. Farmington, 1876-1878. 

Barber, W. C. Prairie City and Valley Junction, 1902-1907. Then Anti- 
Saloon work. 



366 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Barbour, Thomas W. Gowie, 1892-1893. Returned to Wisconsin. 

Barnes, Henry E. Newton, 1864-1868. Returned to Illinois. 

Barnes, John R. Eldora, Fayette, Earlville, 1876-1882. 

Barker, David R. College Springs, 1869-1875. Died in office, October 22, 
1875. 

Barnett, John H. Doon, 1906-1908. 

Barrett, John P. Manchester, 1878-1880. Returned to Illinois. Resides 
at Wheaton. 

Barrett, Mandus. Strawberry Point, Dubuque Summit, Nashua, Whit- 
ing, etc., 1891-1907. 

Barris, James. Born in Pennsylvania (1800). Salem, 1868-1874. Died, 
August, 1874. 

Barrows, Simon. Home Davenport, 1854-1865. Awhile Agent, "Ameri- 
can and Foreign Christian Union." First principal, Des Moines High 
School, 1866-1867. Irving, 1867-1870. Died, January, 1890. 

Barrows, William H. Born, Connecticut, 1830. Lansing, Postville, Cass, 
Hampton, Stacyville, Montour, 1868-1894. Returned to Connecticut. 
Died, October, 1902. 

Bartlett, Enoch N. Newton, 1858-1860 and 1868-1869. Later supply 
work from Grinnell. 

Bashford, Alfred E. Thompson, Magnolia, Arion, 1899-1905. 

Baskerville, Thomas. Bloomfield, 1880-1882. 

Bastel, F. T. Bohemian Missionary Iowa City, Luzerne, etc., 1891- 
1893. 

Battey, Joel. Native of Vermont (1852). National, Garnavillo, 1880- 
1881. Died, July, 1882. 

Bauman, Benjamin R. Born, Lansing, la. (1874). Davenport German, 
1901-1903. 

Baumgardner, Burdette C. Born in 1868. Newton, 1897-1900, and Val- 
ley Junction, 1902-1903. Died, July, 1903. 

Baxter, George W. Knoxville, Elkader, 1894-1905. Then a pastorate 
in the South. 

Bayne, Thomas. New Hampton, 1871-1875. 

Beach, Samuel J. Born, Ohio, 1850. Corning, Farragut, Cedar Falls, 
Clarion, 1875-1905. Redfield, S. D., 1904-1910; Neligh, Neb., 1910-. 

Beard, Joseph R. Pilgrim, Ottumwa, South, Oto and Baxter, 1891-1904. 

Beardsley, Frank G. Webster, Jewell, Salem, Des Moines Greenwood, 
Rock Rapids, Harlan, 1895-1908. Kansas City, Kan., 1908-. 

Beatty, Squire T. Edgewood, Monona, 1895-1902. 

Beacher, George H. Newton, 1863-1864. 

Begg, W. P. (Scotland 1843). Tabor College, Parkersburg, Moville, 1904- 
1911. 



WHO'S WHO 367 

Belknap, Augustus J. Born, Northfield, la., 1844. Otley, Rome, Grundy 

Center, 1876-1881, and Farmington, 1893-1895. Died, Soldiers' 

Home, September, 1902. 
Bell, John D. Monticello, 1868-1870. 
Bellsmith, Louis C. Polk City, 1893-1894. 
Beman, Albert M. Sergeant's Bluffs, Sloan, Spirit Lake, Sioux Rapids, 

Peterson, Corning, 1878-1896. Missouri, 1896-. 
Bennett, Ethan O. Born, New Jersey, 1824. Anamosa, Crawfordsville, 

Columbus City, 1854-1860. Died, November, 1899. 
Bennett, William P. Groton, Mass., 1836. Bradford Academy, 1865- 

1870, Mason City, 1870-1874, Ames, 1880-1884, Crete, Neb., 1875, to 

death, March, 1896. 
Bent, George. Lansing, Burr Oak, Otho, 1858-1873. 
Benton, Adoniram J. Quasqueton, Dickens, Edgewood, Wittemberg, 

Larchwood, Fayette, 1894-. 
Benton, Samuel A. Anamosa and Cass, 1856-1861. Died at Anamosa, 

November 20, 1865. 
Berry, Edward A. Cedar Rapids First, 1896-1903. 

Berry, Loren F. Ottumwa, 1890-1898. Died, May 6, 1900. See Chap- 
ter XII. 
Beaver, Charles H. Pastorates in Nebraska. Anamosa, 1905-1911. 
Bevin, Phillip. Business man at Sabula, who developed into a preacher in 

the '40s. 
Bickers, William H. Began work in Iowa at Danville in 1910. 
Bickford, Isaac B. (Porter, Me., 1847.) MethodistE piscopal training. 

Radcliffe, Buffalo Center, Lakeview, 1903-1907. Died at Lakeview, 

January, 1907. 
Bid well, John B. Perry, Decorah, 1889-1893. Joined the "Christian" 

church. 
Bing, Nelson J. Britt Scandinavian, 1897-1899. 
Bingham, Charles M. (Geneseo, N. Y., 1828.) Monroe, 1871-1874. Died, 

May, 1906. 
Bingham, Joel S. (Cornwall, Vt., October 1815.) Dubuque and Traer, 

1870-1890. See Chapter XII. 
Bisco, George D. Tipton, 1868-1875. 

Bissell, Charles H. Traer, Humboldt, Belle Plaine, 1875-1889. 
Bissell, Jonathan E. Newton, McGregor, 1880-1887. 
Bixby, T. K. School teacher; developed into a preacher. Rockford, 1872- 

1873. Died, March 13, 1873. 
Black, W. Reid. Magnolia and Harrison (Dunlap), 1864-1866. 
Blakeley, David. Stacyville, 1887-1889. Returned to the Presbyterians. 
Blakeman, Phineas. Maquoketa, 1859-1861. 



368 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Blakeslee, Newton T. (Chagrin Falls, 0., 1841.) Mason City, 1874-1876. 
Life work in Wisconsin. Died, May, 1909. 

Blanchard, John L. Oakland, Miles, New Hampton, Le Mars, 1894-1906. 
Harlan, 1910-. 

Blanchard, John T. Born, Michigan, 1853. Monticello, Webster City, 
1886-1895. Sloan, 1907, to death, October, 1908. 

Blanford, Levi D. Baxter, Rockwell, 1906-1911. Mrs. Anna Blanford, 
Chapin, 1909-. 

Bloom, Karl J. Wesley Scandinavian, 1897-1903. 

Bloomer, Joseph. McGregor, 1857-1858. Died, February 21, 1858. See 
Chapter VII., 

Blumer, Adam. Grandview, German, 1857-1859. 

Boardman, Charles P. (Watertown, N. Y., 1859.) Magnolia, West Bur- 
lington, Humboldt, Marshalltown, Red Oak, 1887-1906. Died, Sep- 
tember, 1908. 

Boardman, Horace E. (Rutland, Vt., 1835.) Fort Dodge, Earlville, 1863- 
1865. Died, February, 1888. 

Bockoven, William H. Glenwood, 1902-1904. 

Bogges, J. H. Shenandoah, 1887-1888. Cresco, 1894-1895. 

Bohn, F. H. Anita, Hiteman, 1904-1909. 

Bolin, Nichol J. Ottumwa, Swedish, 1888-1890. 

Boiler, Benjamin F. Davenport Edwards, 1893-1894. Later in California. 

Booth, Milton H. Madison Co. First, 1902-1904. 

Bordwell, Daniel N. Born, Lenox, N. Y., 1828. Le Claire, Lansing, 1858- 
1862. 27th Iowa Regiment, 1862-1864, Charles City, 1864-1869, 
Webster City, Golden Prairie, Cass, 1876-1888. Died, September, 
1888. See Chapter XL 

Boss, Thomas M. Born, New London, Conn., 1838. Lyons, 1866-1870. 
Died, July, 1897. 

Bosworth, U. C. Creston Pilgrim, 1878-1880. 

Bovey, Wesley E. (Virginia, 1867.) Came from the TJ. B. Church. Traer, 
1903-1909. Later in Ohio. 

Bowdish, Austin C. Graduate, Yankton and Chicago Seminary, Sibley, 
1901-1904. 

Bowen, Thomas F. English birth, Bangor Seminary. Emmetsburg, 1888- 
1890. Back to English Church. 

Bowers, Bertha. Madison Co. First, 1899-1900, Orient, 1900-1901. 

Bowers, John M. Native of Pennsylvania. (1835.) Parkersburg, Earl- 
ville, 1874-1881. Died, January, 1891. 

Boynton, Charles F. Ft. Dodge, Otho, Eldora, 1864-1873. 

Boynton, Lyman D. Waukon, Parkersburg, Nashua, 1868-1878. Went 
to the Universalists. 



WHO'S WHO 369 

Bradley, Dan F. Pastorates, Ohio and South Dakota, 1883-1892; Grand 
Rapids, Mich, 1892-1902. President Iowa College, 1902-1905; Cleve- 
land Pilgrim, 1905- 

Brainard, Frank G. Parkersburg, 1893-1894. Returned to Illinois. 

Brakemeyer, Gustav. Grandview, 1888-1892. 

Brande, Alfred G. Charles City, 1882-1883, Tipton, 1885-1888. 

Brandt, Wesley L. Born, Ohio, 1842. Ohio Regiment. Pastorates 1889- 

1905, at Baxter, Reinbeck, Doon, Kellogg, Mitchellville and Jewell. 
Died, March 15, 1905. 

Bray, William L. Born, England, 1832. Newton, Marshalltown, Clinton, 
Oskaloosa, Sheldon, 1870-1908. Alton, 1910-. 

Breckenridge, Daniel M. Ft. Dodge, 1874-1878, Keosauqua, 1879-1885, 
Bellevue, 1887-1890. Retired. 

Breed, Dwight P. Creston, 1895-1900; general missionary, 1900-1907, 
agent College, 1907-. 

Breed, Merle A. (Michigan, 1859.) Three years president Benzonia Col- 
lege. Pastorates in Massachusetts, Monticello, 1904-. 

Breed, Reuben L. Born, Michigan, 1874. Pastorates, Illinois, Minnesota, 
and Wisconsin. Fort Dodge, 1905-1909. Charity work in New 
York. 

Brenneke, Frederick. Minden, 1896-1900. 

Brereton, James E. Born, Illinois, 1857. Pastorates in Iowa, Waverly, 
1895-1908. Emmetsburg, 1908-. 

Brewer, James. Born, Massachusetts, 1821. Gladbrook without charge, 
1882-1890. Died, January, 1896. 

Briggs, Erastus T. Pastorates, 1905-1908 at Woden, Ocheyedan and 
Westfield. 

Briggs, Walter A. (Michigan, 1863.) Toledo, 1904-1906, Stuart, 1906-. 

Brink, Lee A. (Waukon, 1862.) Pastorates, 1890-1893, Elma and Mit- 
chell. Waterloo, 1909-. 

Brinscombe, George. Cass, 1905-1908. 

Brintnall, Loren W. (Vermont, 1828.) In Iowa, 1867-1896. Winthrop, 
Independence, Monticello, Sheldon, Ashton, Fairfax, Hartwick. Died, 
in Washington, May 3, 1900. 

Brintnall, Walter A. Ocheyedan, Little Rock, Ogden, Westfield, 1896- 

1906. Wisconsin, 1906-. 

Bronson, George F. (Connecticut, 1821.) Postville, 1869-1872. Died, 

February, 1883. 
Brooks, Hans. Pastor Scandinavian Church, Britt, 1900-1903. 
Brooks, Raymond C. (Tabor, September, 1869.) Elliott, 1893-1894. 

Taught in Tabor, 1895-1896. Later pastor in California, Oregon and 

Washington. 

25 



370 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Brooks, William E. (Maine, 1835.) Muscatine, 1893-1895. Died, Decem- 
ber, 1906. 
Brooks, William M. (Ohio, 1835.) President Tabor College, 1857-1896. 

See Chapter IX. 
Brooks, William M. Nora Springs, Earlville, Union, Ogden, Eldon, 1874- 

1886. Deceased. 
Bross, Harmon. 1867-1873. After 1873 in Nebraska, General Missionary, 

superintendent and pastor. 
Brown, Charles O. Dubuque, 1886-1891. 

Brown, George E. (Scotland, 1854.) Silver Creek and Keck, 1910-. 
Brown, Israel. (Pennsylvania, 1843.) New Hampton, Traer, 1887-1905. 

Died, March, 1891. 
Brown, John A. Riceville, 1884r-1890. Supply at Victor and Green Island. 
Brown, John L. Kellogg, Sioux City Pilgrim, Rodney, 1896-1901. Went 

into business. 
Brown, Simeon. (Pennsylvania, 1808.) Ottumwa, 1864-1867. Died in 

1867. 
Brown, Victor F. Waverly, Strawberry Point, 1894-1897. 
Bruce, Charles R. New Hampton, 1883-1887. Later in newspaper work. 
Brush, Samuel R. Percival, 1897-1900. 
Buck, John W. Polk City, Eddyville, Gilbert, 1895-1906. Later Missouri 

and California. 
Buck, Samuel J. See Chapter XV. 
Bufkin, Lindley H. (Indiana, 1842.) U. B. Connection. Runnells, 1897- 

1901. 
Bull, Richard B. (Connecticut, 1820.) Marshalltown, 1869-1870. Died, 

May, 1888. 
Bullen, Henry L. (Massachusetts, 1820.) Professor Iowa College, 1850- 

1858. Durant, 1860-1868. 
Bullock, Mortimer A. (Michigan, 1851.) Olivet and Oberlin. Iowa City, 

1888-1900. Lincoln, Neb., 1900-. 
Bundy, W. R. (Ohio, 1846.) U. B. Conference, Dinsdale, 1904-1908; 

Cass, 1908-. 
Burch, Henry H. Methodist Episcopal training. Milford, Primghar, 

Rock Rapids, 1898-1906. 
Burdick, Charles A. Blencoe, 1906-1907. 
Burgess, Richard M. Exira, 1875-1876. 

Burleigh, Benjamin W. Hawarden, McGregor, 1898-1901. Perry, 1908-. 
Burling, James P. (Eldora, 1866.) Iowa College, Hawarden, 1900-1907. 

Des Moines, Greenwood, 1907-. 
Burnard, William H. (Cornwall, Eng., 1829.) Mt. Pleasant, Algona, 

Miles and Preston, 1869-1872. Died, January, 1902. 



WHO'S WHO 371 

Burnett, C. C. Fairfield, 1872-1878. 

Burnham, Charles. (Pelham, N. H., 1812.) Brighton, Clay, Albia, Knox- 

ville, 1841-1856. Died, July, 1883. 
Burr, Horatio M. College Springs, 1894-1896. 
Burton, Nathan L. (Plymouth, 111., 1847.) Eagle Grove, Otho, 1882-1887; 

pastor at large, 1887-1889; Tipton, Postville, 1889-1892. Returned to 

Illinois. 
Burton, R. Washington. (Indiana, 1868.) Glenwood, 1909-1910. 
Buss, William H. Burlington and West Burlington, 1882-1887. Went to 

Nebraska. 
Butcher, William T. (Anita, la., 1877.) Hartwick, Salem, 1906-1911. 
Butler, Elmer W. Mitchell, 1884-1886. Later pastorates and Sunday 

school work in the South. 
Butterfield, George. (Native of New Hampshire.) Elk River, etc., 1857- 

1859. Served in "Gray Beard" Regiment during the war. 
Byers, William L. (Dayton, O., 1866.) U. B. training. Keokuk, 1895, to 

his death, November, 1900. 
Cadwalader, M. Jones. Georgetown, 1881-1883. 
Cady, Cornelius S. (Orwell, Vt., 1813.) Bowen's Prairie, Cass, Maquo- 

keta, 1857-1870. Died, September, 1889. 
Cady, George L. Native of Michigan. Iowa City, 1900-1905; Dubuque, 

1905-1908. Then to Boston. 
Cady, William J. Native of Michigan. Graduate Chicago Seminary. 

Charles City, 1908-. 
Cain, Francis E. Elma, Shell Rock, 1905-1907. 
Cakebread, George. Mt. Pleasant, 1874-1876. 
Calhoun, Francis E. Madison Co. First. Fellowship, Beulah and Grand 

River, 1905-1906. 
Calhoun, Newell M. Creston and Nevinville, 1873-1876. Returned to 

New England. 
Canfield, Philo. (Bridgeport, Conn., 1816.) Washington, 1868-1871, 

where he died, February 11, 1879. 
Canfield, Thomas H. (New York, 1810.) At Bellevue, Lansing, Lucas 

Grove, etc., in '50s and '60s. Died, May, 1904. 
Carlton, Albert V. (Wisconsin, February, 1860.) U. B. Minister. Con- 
gregational pastorate, Rowan and Harvey, 1906-. 
Carlisle, Charles B. Winthrop, 1894-1898. 
Carpenter, Elbridge G. (New York, 1829.) Corning, Stuart, Winthrop, 

Golden Prairie, 1872-1879. Died, August, 1879. 
Carson, J. William. Dunlap, 1893-1897. Went to Nebraska. 
Carr, Edwin S. (Native of Illinois.) Lyons, Humboldt, Ft. Dodge, 1885- 

1894, Cherokee, 1907-1909. 



372 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Carter, Ferdinand. (Native of Michigan.) Clear Lake, 1893-1897. Later 
in Ohio and Colorado. 

Carter, Lucy W. (Boston, 1873.) Lamoille and Eddyville, 1908-1910. 
Went to Kansas. 

Case, Albert M. Clear Lake, Waverly, 1878-1884. Monticello, 1895- 
1898. Retired. 

Case, Horatio M. (Denmark, 1842.) Denmark Academy. Civil War. 
Hastings, Stuart, Emmetsburg, 1883-1898. Residence Emmetsburg, 
1898-. 

Chaffee, Frank M. Stuart, 1902-1905. Entered the lecture field. 

Chalmers, J. R. Sioux City First, 1879-1883. Deceased. 

Chamberlain, Joshua M. (Massachusetts, 1825.) Dubuque, Des Moines, 
Eddyville, Iowa College, 1858-1897. See Chapter XII. 

Chambers, Charles A. Parkersburg, Rowan, Bellevue, Otho, 1901-1911. 

Chambers, George R. Jewell, Ellsworth, Lincoln, Rockford, Gilman, 
Newburg, 1901-1907. 

Champlin, Oliver P. (Connecticut, 1843.) Emmetsburg, Corning, 1884- 
1887. Later Minnesota and North Dakota. 

Chandler, Joseph. (Connecticut, 1819.) Strawberry Point, 1880-1887. 
Died, July, 1892. 

Chapman, Richard K. (Chester, Eng., 1861.) Mitchell, 1908-1909, Trip- 
oli, 1909-. 

Chase, E. B. (New Hampshire, October, 1847.) Lyons, 1891-18^2. Later 
in Minnesota, Illinois and Ohio. 

Chase, James B. (Woodstock, Vt., 1837.) Council Bluffs, 1865-1868; 
Cherokee, Sioux City, Pilgrim, Hull Church and Academy, Iowa Falls, 
Toledo, Ocheyedan, Sergeant Bluffs, Sioux City Riverside, Aurelia, 
Greenville and Herdland, 1880-1907. Organized twenty-four churches 
and received to membership 1223. Became Presbyterian, 1907. 

Chase, Henry L. (Vermont, 1832.) Dyersville, 1867-1870; Green Moun- 
tain, 1870-1882. Died, March 1, 1905. 

Cheney, Burton H. (Michigan, 1873.) Wesleyan Methodist. Monona, 
1906-1910. Winthrop, 1910-. 

Chevis, Ernest C. (England, 1863.) Woden, Berwick, Webster, Ionia, 
1901-1909. Later in Illinois. 

Childs, Edward P. Clarion, Anita, 1885-1893. Became an M. D. 

Childs, Truman D. Toledo, 1874-1875. Returned to New England. 

Chittenden, Ezra P. Sioux City First, 1883-1885. Later in Illinois. 

Clapp, Charles W. (Massachusetts, 1817.) Professor Iowa College, 1864- 
1871. Supplied at Chester Center, 1866-1869. Died, August, 1884. 

Clark, Allen Lewis. South Ottumwa, Agency, 1889-1897. Later in Min- 
nesota. 



WHO'S WHO 373 

Clark, Allen C. Wilton, 1868-1872. 

Clarke, E. Bellevue, 1861-1862. 

Clark, H. L. Williamsburg, 1869-1874. 

Clark, Nelson. (Vermont, 1813.) Dartmouth and Andover. National 

and Garnavillo, 1879-1880. Died, March, 1880. 
Clark, Orlando. (Indiana, 1824.) Lansing, Iowa Falls, Ottumwa, 1867- 

1874. Blind Asylum to death, 1876. 
Cleveland, Edward. (Canada, 1804.) Polk City, Wilton, 1860-1862, 

Waverly, Dunlap, 1879-1882. Died, September, 1886. 
Clossen, J. T. Fayette, Bowens, Prairie 1868-1873. 

Clute, N. M. Presbyterian. Supplied Charles City, 1878-1881. Deceased. 
Clyde, John P. (Waucoma, 1869.) In Iowa College, supplied at Van 

Cleve, Union, etc. Pastorates Dunlap, Eldora, Muscatine, 1897-1905. 

Later South Dakota and Nebraska. 
Cobb, Henry W. (Massachusetts, 1815.) Le Claire, Tipton, 1851-1855. 

Later in Wisconsin and Illinois. Died, May 16, 1889. 
Colburn, C. S. "Singing Evangelist." Two years, 1907-1909, pastor at 

Percival. 
Coburn, William I. South Ottumwa, 1888-1889. 
Cochran, Samuel D. (Pennsylvania, 1812.) Grinnell, 1863-1869. Died, 

October 5, 1904. 
Coe, Wales. Crawfordsville, 1857-1858. 

Cokely, Benjamin F. Perry, 1900-1903. Died, Galesburg, 111., 1904. 
Colby, John S. (New Hampshire, 1851.) Des Moines North Park, 1897- 

1898. Died, November, 1898. 
Cole, Thomas W. Sheldon, 1888-1889. Returned to Wisconsin. 
Coleman, George A. (Pennsylvania, 1843.) Corning, 1880-1884. Died, 

May 3, 1885. 
Coleman, William L. (Orange County, N. Y., 1817.) Pastorates in Iowa, 

1847-1881. See Chapters VII and XIII. 
Comin, John. Des Moines North Park, 1899-1908. Went to Wisconsin. 
Comley, Ezra. Tyson's Mill, 1868-1870. Residence there without 

charge, 1870-1878. 
Comstock, Davillo W. (New York, 1831.) Oakland, Sergeant Bluffs, 

1884-1886. Died, November, 1903. 
Conrad, George A. Kingsley, 1896-1898. Later in Nebraska. 
Copeland, Jonathan. Dunlap, Shelbyville, 1875-1880. 
Cook, Charles H. De Witt, 1884-1885. 
Cook, Joseph T. (Ohio, 1826.) Eddyville, Des Moines Plymouth, 1853- 

1859, Maquoketa, 1869-1872. Died at Sabula, April 18, 1897. 
Cook, Levi H. (Wisconsin, July, 1852.) Gowrie, 1894-1896. Died, 

August 27, 1896. 



374 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Cookman, Isaac. (Indiana, 1853.) Ottumwa South, 1904-1907. Went to 
Oklahoma. 

Cooley, F. M. (Wisconsin, 1833.) Wesleyan Methodist. Britt, Chero- 
kee, 1878-1887. Died, June, 1891. 

Cooley, H. George. Alton, Lakeview, Ogden, Bondurant, 1896-1900. 
Went into business. 

Cooley, Oramel W. (Massachusetts, 1816.) Glenwood, 1865-1868. Res- 
idence to time of death, May, 1889. 

Cooper, Joseph C. (Plymouth, Mass., 1820.) Salem, Hillsboro, Cincin- 
nati. Died, August, 1872. 

Core, Harley R. Iowa boy. Iowa College, Harmony, Rossie, 1901-1902, 
Rockford, 1908-. 

Corwin, C. L. Grundy Center, 1878-1880. 

Cossar, Andrew O. Iowa Falls, 1888-1889. Later in Missouri and 
California. 

Couchman, Thomas B. From Methodist Episcopal Church. Chester 
Center, 1901-1903. Popejoy, Berwick, 1903-1907. Independence, 
1907-. 

Countryman, Asa. (New York, 1827.) Universalist, 1853-1857. Iowa 
Falls, Newell, Parkersburg, Jewell, 1877-1885. Died, August, 1906. 

Covey, J. H. Grant, 1871-1875. 

Cowan, John W. Tabor, 1885-1894. Eldora, Newton, 1898-1901. Crete, 
Neb., 1901-. 

Cragin, Charles C. (Rhode Island, 1841.) McGregor, 1875-1883. Later 
pastorates, Illinois and California. 

Craig, Daniel. Native of West Virginia. Brighton, 1864-1868. Later at 
"College Farm." 

Cramer, Frank L. "Settlement Work" in Des Moines, 1896-1911. 

Crane, Edward P. Central City, Emmetsburg, Brighton, De Witt, Mit- 
chell, 1885-1895. 

Crang, Frederick. (England.) Church of England. Surgeon, British 
Navy. In practice in New York and Illinois. Began preaching in 1866, 
Columbus, City; Franklin 1867-1873. Died in Oregon, September, 
1906. 

Crawford, Otis D. (Dubuque, 1842.) Three years in army service. 
Wounded at Vicksburg. One year at Iowa College, Hampton, 1872- 
1874. Nevin, Good Hope, Orient, Gem Point, Polk City, Hartwick, 
1900-1904. 

Crawford, Sidney. (Massachusetts, 1841.) Lyons, 1875-1885. Went 
South and then back to Massachusetts. 

Cressman, Abraham A. (Pennsylvania, 1849.) Farragut, 1904-1906. 
Returned to Nebraska. 



WHO'S WHO 375 

Crofts, George W. (Illinois, 1842.) Council Bluffs, 1885-1892. Beatrice, 
Neb., 1892-1905. Died, West Point, Neb., May, 1909. 

Croker, George H. (England, 1863.) Whiting, Larchwood, Green Moun- 
tain, 1893-1906. Retired to farm. 

Croker, John. (England, 1857.) Cincinnati, Golden, Kingsley, Lakeview, 
1888-1900. Went to Nebraska. 

Cross, John. (Massachusetts, 1797.) Residence College Springs, 1860 to 
time of death in 1885. 

Cross, Moses K. (Danvers, Mass., 1812.) Tipton, Washington, Waverly, 
1855-1871. Died, March 12, 1902. See Chapter XIII. 

Crossland, George E. (Ohio, 1861.) Cincinnati, 1899-1900. Died, Decem- 
ber 6, 1903. 

Crosswell, Micah S. Independence, Hull, 1884-1887. 

Cruzan, John A. Early life at McGregor, Charles City, 1872-1873. Later 
in Honolulu. 

Cumings, John M. (Ohio, 1848.) Percival, Exira, Spencer, Anita, Dun- 
lap, Sheldon, Baxter, Denmark, 1874-1910. Farragut, 1910-. See 
Chapter XVI. 

Cummings, Origin. (Vermont, 1812.) One of the founders of Tabor. Per- 
cival and Exira, 1861-1864. Died, August, 1864. 

Curtis, Lucius. (Connecticut, 1812.) Lyons, 1871-1874. Died, Hart- 
ford, Conn., February, 1901. 

Cushman, Charles E. Born in Grinnell, June, 1870. Iowa College, Avoca, 
Victor, Anita, 1901-1911. 

Cushman, Job. (Massachusetts, 1797.) Started Iowa M. R. Fund. Res- 
idence, Grinnell, 1867 to death in 1878. 

Cutler, William A. Of Jacksonville, 111." Clear Lake, 1882-1883. Later 
in Minnesota. 

Dana, Malcom. (Connecticut, December, 1869.) Maquoketa, 1904-1909. 
Returned to New England. 

Dane, Charles. Quasqueton, Center Point, 1872-1877. 

Darling, Marc W. (New York, 1844.) Sioux City First, 1886-1900. 
Blenco, 111., 1900-1910. 

Dascomb, Harry N. (Woodstock, Vt., 1870.) Port Huron, Mich., 1900- 
1907. Grinnell, 1907-1910. Cleveland, Ohio, 1910-. 

Davidson, David E. (Connecticut, 1815.) Monona, 1854-1863. Grinnell 
residence, 1870-1883. Died, 1886. 

Davidson, William E. Algona, 1888-1896. From that date to 1911 in 
Wisconsin. 

Davis, Increase S. (Massachusetts, 1897.) New England pastor, twenty- 
eight years. Nevin, 1860-1864. 

Davis, M. E. Long Creek (Welsh), 1878-1881, 



376 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Davies, Daniel D. Ottumwa South (now Plymouth), 1901-1904. 

Davies, James. Salem, 1891-1895. 

Davis, Joseph W. Monticello, 1891-1895. Also a few months at Keosau- 

qua. 
Day, Ernest E. Native of Minnesota. Northfield College, Spencer, 1902- 

1909; Cedar Falls, 1909-. 
Deakin, George B. Peterson, Prairie City, 1904-1906. 
Dean, Benjamin A. Garnavillo, Sibley and "region round about," 1869- 

1878. 
Dean, Edward B. (India, 1866.) Clinton, 1899-1905. Northfield, Minn., 

1905-. 
Dean, Frederick A. De Witt, Strawberry Point, 1901-1905. 
DeForest, Henry S. Native of New York. Des Moines, Council Bluffs, 

Waterloo, 1866-1878. See Chapter XII. 
DeLano, Marcus. From Methodist Episcopal Church. Rodney, 1892- 

1893. Returned to the Methodists. 
Delevan, G. E. Maquoketa, 1856-1857. 
De Long, T. Weston, Hastings, 1880-1880. 
De Mond, Abraham L. Buxton, 1905-1910. 
Denney, Wilson. (Aurora, 111., 1858.) Clinton, 1886-1889; Charles City, 

1898-1907. Cedar Rapids, 1907-. 
Depew, Arnett. De Witt, 1895-1898. Back to Illinois. 
DeRiemer, William E. (Illinois, 1839.) Celyon, 1867-1878. Denmark, 

New Hampton, Miles, etc., 1882-1890. 
Dettmers, Carl A. Born in Germany. America, 1891. Muscatine Ger- 
man, 1904-. 
Dickenson, Samuel F. (Massachusetts, July, 1839.) Newton, 1884-1890. 

Died in Colorado, August 7, 1897. 
Dikeman, Charles F. (Prussia, 1847.) Hillsboro, Salem, Nora Springs, 

Rockford, Forest City, 1874-1887. 
Dickerson, Orson C. Boonsboro, Garden Prairie, 1870-1878. Returned 

to Illinois. 
Dickinson, Daniel S. Marion, 1858-1860. 

Dickinson, George R. Cedar Rapids, 1892-1896. Returned to New Eng- 
land. 
Dilley, Alex B. (Pennsylvania, 1819.) Bentonsport, 1849-1852. Later, 

New York, Pennsylvania and Florida. Died, September 29, 1893. 
Dimon, Oliver. Keosauqua, 1853-1855. Carried to New England home 

to die. 
Dodd, Augustus R. Wesleyan Meth. College Springs, Montour, 1896- 

1906. 
Donaldson, David. Ocheyedan, 1894-1896. 



WHO'S WHO 377 

Dom, William H. New Hampton, German, 1893-1899. 

Dorsey, G. N. Quasqueton, 1878-1880. 

Douglass, Clinton. (Cornwall, Vt., 1845.) Civil War; American Mis- 
sionary work, Rockwell, Des Moines Pilgrim, 1890-1899. Died, Ceres, 
Cal., December, 1906. 

Douglass, Francis J. (Connecticut, 1832.) Missionary to Jamaica, Toledo, 
Union, Humboldt, Ames, Olds, 1882-1899. Died, May, 1909. 

Douglass, Harlan Paul. (Osage, 1871.) Iowa College. Blairsburg, Man- 
son, Ames, 1891-1900. Later, Springfield, Mo.; American Missionary 
Association superintendent; American Missionary Association secretary. 

Douglass, Roscoe D. (Wisconsin, 1876.) Iowa College. Victor, Dunlap, 
1901-1908, Oroville, Cal., 1908-. 

Douglass, Newell F. Newell, Garner, Eagle Grove, 1893-1899. Went to 
Episcopalians. 

Douglass, Thomas. Fort Dodge, Durant, 1872-1878. 

Douglass, Truman O. (Illinois, 1842.) Osage, 1868-1882. H. M. Secre- 
tary, 1882-1907. Associate, 1907-. 

Douglass, T. Orville, Jr. (Osage, 1873.) Iowa College. Davenport Beth., 
Eagle Grove, 1897-1903. Des Moines North Park, 1910-. 

Downs, Charles A. Little Rock, 1902-1904. 

Drake, Francis E. Eagle Grove, Belle Plaine, 1899-1903. 

Drake, Mary E. Evangelistic and missionary work, 1894-1896. 

Drew, Charles E. Salem, Strawberry Point, Danville, 1899-1907. 

Dungan, George W. Fontanelle, 1879-1880. 

Dungan, Thomas A. Grinnell, assistant pastor, 1908-1911. 

Dunham, Warren. (Vermont, 1822.) Episcopal and Methodist Episcopal. 
Larchwood Berwick, Wittemberg, Kellogg, Gem Point, 1888-1896. 
Died in Wyo., July, 1908. 

Dunton, Abram L. Lamoille, Shell Rock, Winthrop, Gilbert, Belmond, 
1895-1904. 

Durant, Edward. Weaver, Oak Grove, 1893-1896. Left the denomination. 

Dutton, Aaron. Preached for six months at Burlington in 1843. 

Dutton, Horace. Eddyville, 1868-1870. 

Dutton, Thomas. (Connecticut, 1812.) Georgia, 111., Farmington and 
Bentonsport, in 1843. Died, March, 1885. 

Dwight, M. Everett. (Hadley, Mass., 1841.) Fairfield, 1879-1888. Died, 
New York, September, 1907. 

Dyas, Joseph P. (Massachusetts, 1848.) Baxter, Nora Springs, Salem, 
1893-1897. 

Eakin, John Alex. Cresco, New Hampton, 1902-1909. 

Eaton, Cyrus H. (Vermont, 1822.) Prairie City, 1868-1871; Farragut, 
1875-1877. Died, 1902. 



378 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Eaton, Edward D. (Lancaster, Wis., 1851.) Newton, 1876-1880. Presi- 
dent Beloit College, 1885-. 

Eastman, Alpha M. Monona, 1849-1852. 

Edson, Henry K. (Hadley, Mass., 1822.) Denmark Academy, 1853- 
1879, Iowa College, 1879-1892. Died, 1906. 

Ek, Henry E. Ottumwa Swedish, 1909-. 

Eells, Dudley B. (Connecticut, 1829.) Farmington, Webster, Cincinnati, 
Lucas Grove, Sabula, 1866-1876. In 1911 residing at Payson, 111. 

Eells, Samuel E. Grandview, 1909-. 

Egerland, Franz. Sioux City German, 1890-1891. 

Elliott, Asa S. Cincinnati, Belknap, Mt. Hope, Georgetown, 1872-1880. 

Elliott, Franklin. Monona, Eagle Grove, Manson, 1886-1892. 

Ellsworth, Alfred A. Waterloo, 1871-1876. 

Elser, Jacob W. (Ohio, 1838.) Lutheran training. Jewell, Edgewood, 
1892-1895. Died, 1898. 

Ely, Edward L. Rockwood, 1896-1899. Went into business. 

Emerson, Fred C. Cincinnati. 1884-1885. 

Emerson, Oliver. See Chapters III, XIII, XIV and others. 

Emerson, Thomas P. Marion and the Wapsipinecon country, 1840-1841. 
See Chapter III. 

Ethridge, Albert. Resided in Des Moines in the '80s without charge. 

Evans, Chamber W. Givin, 1896-1899. 

Evans, David E. Gomer, 1888-1892. 

Evans, D. Ellis. Larchwood, Lewis, 1896-1902. 

Evans, Evan J. (Wales, 1811.) Williamsburg, 1858-1872. Died at 
Williamsburg, January 18, 1884. See Chapter VII. 

Evans, Thomas W. Long Creek Welsh, 1856-1861. Died there, 86 years of 
age. 

Evans, James J. Old Man's Creek, 1902-1904. 

Evans, Walter A. (Illinois, 1859.) Cherokee, 1886-1888. Later in Illi- 
nois and Massachusetts. Retired, Plainfield, 111. 

Ewell, Edwin. Clarion, Denmark, Nashua, 1894-1904. Moved to Min- 
nesota. 

Ewell, John L. Clinton, 1871-1874. 

Everest, Asa E. (Peru, N. Y., 1821.) Belle Plaine, 1878-1880. Residence, 
Grinnell, 1880-1895. Much of this time agent Bible Society. Resi- 
dence, Council Bluffs, 1895-1899. Died, April, 1899. 

Eveland, Samuel. (Ireland, 1846.) Wayne, Hickory Grove, Reinbeck, 
Ionia, 1884^-1894. Died, 1898. 

Everts, Henry S. Grandview, 1904-1906. Returned to Wisconsin. 

Fairbanks, Arthur. Professor in State University, 1901-1906. 

Fairfield, Fred W. Professor, Tabor College, 1882-1891. 



WHO'S WHO 379 

Fairfield, M. W. Lyons, 1864-1865. Pastorates in Ohio and Illinois, 

before Iowa. Later in New England. 
Farwell, Asa. (Dorset, Vt., 1812.) Bentonsport, 1866-1870. Professor 

Doane College, 1877-1878. Died in Vermont, 1888. 
Fasteen, Karl G. Ottumwa Swedish, 1896-1897. 
Fath, Jacob. (Germany, 1840.) Muscatine German, 1882-1889. Des 

Moines, 1903-1904. Treynor, 1904^-. 
Fawkes, Francis. (England, 1838.) See Chapter XIV. 
Ferner, John W. (Ohio, 1847.) Mitchellville, Prairie City, Grundy Cen- 
ter, Postville, Storm Lake, Hampton, 1880-1900; Tabor, 1904-1910. 

Went to Nebraska. 
Ferris, Walter L. (Illinois, 1852.) Cherokee, 1889-1902. Returned to 

Illinois. 
Fetteroff, J. F. Des Moines Pilgrim, 1900-1902. 
Ficke, Hermann. Dubuque Immanuel. Began in 1868. Still pastor at 

time of death, June 4, 1911. 
Fifield, Lebbeus B. (Maine, 1826.) Durango, Manchester, Cedar Falls, 

1855-1870. Nebraska, 1870-1880. Died, 1906. 
Finger, Charles F. (Germany, 1840.) Davenport, German, 1893-1899 

and 1909-1910. Retired, 1910. 
Fish, Henry S. (New York, 1816.) Baptist minister, forty years. Fon- 
tanels, Nevin, 1878-1881. Died, August, 1894. 
Fisher, Charles F. (Pennsylvania, 1873.) Clinton, Le Mars, 1905-1910, 

Tabor, 1910-. 
Fisher, Herman P. (Massachusetts, 1854.) Clarion, 1890-1892. Churches 

in Minnesota, 1892-. 
Fisher, Alfred. Alden, 1902-1904. 
Fisher, Jesse L. Lewis, 1904-1907. Later pastorates in South Dakota and 

Nebraska. 
Fisk, Franklin L. Garner, Elkader, Sioux Rapids, 1892-1903. 
Fiske, John B. (New York, 1828.) Anamosa, 1876-1887. Bonne Terre, 

Mo., 1888-1902. Died, March, 1907. 
Fiske, Pliny H. (Vermont, 1854.) Clay, Gait, 1902-1906, Mitchellville, 

1906-. 
Fitch, Lucius R. Formerly Methodist Episcopal. Washta, Milford, Ocheye- 

dan, Lakeside, 1886-1897. 
Fleury, Peter. See Chapter V. 
Flint, Edgar E. (Ohio.) Creston, 1900-1908. Later in California and 

Montana. 
Foote, William W. (Ohio, 1831.) Professor, Tabor College* 1878-1880. 

Died, Kidder, Mo., July, 1895. 
Foster, John. Lyons, 1902-1904. 



380 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Foster, Lucien M. Retired M. E. Joined Mitchell Association in 1891. 
In 1911 was 94 years of age. 

Foster, Roswell. (New Hampshire, 1824.) Newton, Ottumwa, Winthrop, 
Independence, 1857-1882. Died, 1892. 

Foster, William C. Percival, 1870-1872. 

Fowle, Hanford. Perry, 1885-1886. 

Fox, Almon K. (Pennsylvania, 1835.) Denmark, 1885-1892. Still resid- 
ing at Denmark in 1911. 

France, Parvin M. (Ohio, 1852.) From U. B. Church. Eldon, Miles, 
Ionia, 1901-1907. 

Francis, George A. McGregor, 1901-1907. 

Francis, S. J. (Kentucky, 1819.) Lyons and De Witt, 1849-1851. Chari- 
ton, 1851-1851. Died, June, 1865. 

Frankfurth, H. Dubuque German, 1864-1867. 

Freeman, Hiram. (Vermont, 1811.) Blairstown, 1867-1869. Lived at 
Ames and Sioux City without charge. Died, June, 1896. 

Freeman, Marsten S. Newell, Waucoma, 1889-1894. 

Frey, J. M. Lawler, Troy, Golden Prairie, 1872-1877. 

French, Alvan D. (Vermont, 1814.) Eddyville, 1856-1862. Died, 1866. 

French, Charles R. Postville, 1858-1867. 

French, Charles L. Primghar, 1900-1902. 

French, Ozro. (Vermont, 1807.) Missionary in India. Bentonsport, 
Knoxville, Franklin, Blairstown, Fairfax, 1851-1865. Died, Septem- 
ber 28, 1865. 

Frisbie, Alvah L. (Delavan Co., New York, 1830.) Des Moines 
Plymouth pastor and emeritus, 187 1-. See Chapter X. 

Frizzell, John W. Came from Wisconsin. Sioux City, 1905-1907. Later 
in Texas and Washington, D. C. 

Frost, D. D. Le Mars, 1873-1876. 

Frost, Merle A. Miles, Waucoma, 1897-1907. Went to Washington. 

Frost, Willard J. Sloan, 1909-1910. Returned to Nebraska. 

Frowein, Abraham. Davenport German and Sherrill Mound, 1849-1855. 

Gale, Clarence R. Marshalltown, 1893-1899. Later, City Missionary, 
Seattle, Wash. 

Gale, William P. Genoa Bluffs, Williamsburg, 1856-1862. 

Gales, Thomas P. Alton, 1904-1906. 

Gallagher, LeRoy E. (Conrad, la., 1878.) From M. E. Church. Green 
Mountain, 1909-. 

Gardner, William. De Witt, 1907-1910. 

Gates, Charles H. Fairfield, Washington, Oskaloosa, 1851-1868. 

Gates, George A. (Vermont, 1851.) Upper Montclair, 1880-1887. Presi- 
dent, Iowa College, 1887-1900. Later pastor Cheyenne; president, 
Pomona and president of Fisk. 



WHO'S WHO 381 

Gates, Hiram N. (New York, 1820.) Yankee Settlement, Delphi, 

Almoral, Earlville, 1850-1862. Later general missionary in Minnesota, 

and Superintendent Home Missions, Nebraska. Died, 1901. 
Gaylord, Reuben. Danville, Mt. Pleasant, 1838-1855. See Chapters 

III and XI. 
Geddes, S. J. (Ohio, 1849.) Methodist Protestant. President, Iowa 

Conference. Began Congregational pastorate at Knoxville, January 

1, 1910. 
Geer, Herman. (Vermont, 1818.) Nevin, 1878-1879. Died at Tabor, 

January, 1892. 
Geiger, J. W. Harlan, Mason City, Oskaloosa, Marion, 1887-1897. 
Gemmell, George. (New York, 1812.) Missionary A. M. A. in Iowa, 

1856-1863. Died, Quasqueton, June, 1864. 
George, David M. Williamsburg, 1905-1909. 
George, Jesse C. Dickens, Webster, Olds, 1895-1903. 
Gerhardt, Otto. (Germany, 1885.) Evangelical Association. Congrega- 
tional: Des Moines German, 1897 to death in 1899. 
Gibbs, Charles C. (Connecticut, 1820.) Earlville and Cedar Falls, 1865- 

1887. Died, St. Louis, Mo., May, 1891. 
Gifford, William H. Colesburg, 1908-1909. 
Gilbert, James B. (Vermont, 1826.) Lucas Grove, Lansing, Maquoketa, 

Mason City, Toledo, Buckingham, Rockford, 1860-1880. Died, March, 

1894. 
Gilbert, Simeon. Native of Vermont. Ames, 1868-1869. Editor Advance. 

Still in Chicago. 
Gilmore, Charles E. Washta, Primghar, 1901-1906; Rock Rapids, 1906-. 
Gilmore, J. BeUevue, 1874-1877. 
Gist, Nathan. (Marion, 1885.) Began his first pastorate at Humeston, 

1909. 
Gist, William W. (Ohio, 1849.) In Civil War. Coe CoUege, 1881-1887; 

Marion and Osage, 1887-1889; Coe, 1899-1900; Normal, 1900-. 
Glover, John F. (Pennsylvania, 1845.) Civil War, 38th Wisconsin. Och- 

eyedan, 1908-1910. A lawyer. 
Gonzales, John B. (Allison, 1870.) Cedar Rapids Beth. Marion, Union, 

1895-1902. Later pastor in Louisiana, and superintendent Home Mis- 
sions in the South. 
Gonzales, Frank C. Lakeside, Kellogg, Buffalo Center, 1901-1910; Traer, 

1910-. 
Goodenow, Smith B. (Maine, 1817.) Jefferson, 1867-1870. Died, Battle 

Creek, la., March, 1897. 
Gordon, Henry. (Massachusetts, 1855.) Professor, Iowa University, 

1900-1909. Died, September, 1909. 



382 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Gorton, Philo. Edgewood, Strawberry Point, Newell, Waverly, Kellogg, 
Quasqueton, Sumner, Farnhamville, 1880-1900. 

Graf, John F. Davenport German, 1864-1873. 

Granger, Charles. Crawfordsville, Crooked Creek, etc., 1844-1846. 

Grassie, Thomas G. (Scotland, November 31.) Keokuk, 1880-1883. 
Superintendent Home Missions, Wisconsin, 1883 to death, 1898. 

Graves, Alpheus. (Massachusetts, 1815.) Edgewood, Iowa Falls, Brad- 
ford, Lansing, Eldora, Big Rock, etc., 1854-1884. Died, Memphis, 
Tenn., 1894. 

Graves, Arthur G. (Minnesota, 1876.) Iowa College, Corning, 1904- 
1908; Fairfield, 1909-. 

Grawe, John F. (German, 1845.) Educated, Bradford Academy. Polk 
City, 1879-1881. Died in Nebraska, January, 1882. 

Gray, John. (Native of England.) Avoca, Parkersburg, Sergeant Bluffs, 
Sibley, 1883-1895. 

Greenaway, Brandon. Britt, 1906-1910. 

Gregg, William C. Green's Grove, 1889-1893. 

Griffiths, Evan. Old Man's Creek, 1859-1863. 

Griffith, William R. Berwick, Williamsburg, 1891-1896; Hiteman, 1906- 
1907. 

Grinnell, Joel E. Monona, Castana, Garden Prairie, 1902-1909. 

Grinnell, Joslah B. (Vermont, December, 1821.) Residence, Grinnell, 
1854, to death, March 31, 1891. See Chapter XII. 

Grinnell, Sylvester S. (Ohio, 1850.) Des Moines Pilgrim, Rockford, 1883- 
1887. Died, December, 1897. 

Grob, Gottfried. (Switzerland, 1858.) SherriU's Mound, 1892-1899. 

Grout, Samuel. (Vermont, 1819.) Inland and Big Rock, Monroe, 1856- 
1869. Died, April, 1904. 

Grove, Jacob F. Wilton German, 1897-1901. 

Gurney, John H. (Maine, 1821.) Humboldt, 1878-1880. Died, Decem- 
ber 7, 1898. 

Guernsey, Jesse. (Connecticut, 1822.) Dubuque, 1853-1855. Superin- 
tendent Home Missions, 1857, to death, December 1, 1871. See Chap- 
ter X. 

Guynne, Fred H. Clear Lake, 1888-1890. 

Gyr, R. SherriU's Mound, 1869-1871. 

Haecker, M. Claude. Jewell, Shell Rock, 1899-1901. 

Halbert, Charles T. (Maine, 1864.) Hartwick, Blairsburg, Lakeview, 
Avoca, Gilbert, Nora Springs, 1899-1909. Ionia, 1909-. 

Hales, John J. (England, 1845.) In ministry, thirty-three years before 
coming to Iowa. Centerdale and Olds, 1906-1909. 

Hall, Ransom B. Hiteman, Prairie City, 1903-1906. Went into business. 



WHO'S WHO 383 

Hall, Samuel A. Ordained, 1861. Boonsboro, without charge, 1891-1901. 

Died, 1908. 
Hallock, Joseph A. (Peru, X. Y., 1811.) Salem, 1867-1868; Exira, Old- 
field, Stanton, 1879-1883. 
Hambleton, Ira D. (Ohio, 1868.) Van Cleve, Popejoy, 1899-1901. Later 

in Alabama and California. 
Hamlin, Cyrus. Council Bluffs, 1878-1884. Later, Beloit, Wis., and 

A. M. A. work. 
Hamlin, Homer. Residence, Grinnell. 

Hamilton, J. A. Davenport, 1867-1870. Returned to New England. 
Hamilton, Charles S. Orient, Elliott, 1887-1890. 
Hammond, Charles L. Gilman, 1898-1903. 
Hancock, Charles. (Massachusetts, 1833.) Calmar, Conover, Stacy- 

ville, Strawberry Point, Alden, 1868-1880. Since 1880, a physician at 

Denmark. 
Hand, Leroy S. (New York, 1839.) Wayne, Crawfordsville, Polk City, 

Ogden, 1870-1881, Ottumwa South, Eddyville, Sioux Rapids, Post- 

ville, Runnells, Clay, Van Cleve, 1883-1911. Residence after 1908 at 

Grinnell. 
Hanley, Charles S. Childhood at Tabor. Independent Evangelist, 1887- 

1904. Council Bluffs, People's Church, 1908-. 
Hannant, Norrison E. Waucoma, 1899-1902. 
Hanscom, Fred L. (Maine, 1870.) Sibley, Moville, Ionia, Garner, 1891- 

1902. Later in Illinois. 
Hanscom, George L. (Maine, 1862.) Sheldon, New Hampton, 1890- 

1898. Later in New York and Florida. 
Hanson, John H. (Sweden, 1873.) Centerville Swedish, 1908-. 
Hardcastle, William. Iowa Falls, 1907-. 

Harper, Aimer. (Indiana, 1826.) Sabula, Sterling, Le Claire, 1855-1866. 
Harlow, Lincoln. Lewis, 1863-1865. 
Harrah, Charles C. (Ohio, January, 1841.) Iowa College, Monroe, 1875- 

1878; Newton, 1890-1898; Des Moines Greenwood and Pilgrim, 1898- 

1902. Died, April, 1903. 
Harris, Bertha J. From Schaumer Training School. Assisted at Bear 

Grove, etc. 
Harris, Rupert W. Elliott, Bear Grove, Orient, 1891-1899. Later in 

Ohio. 
Harrison, James. Beacon, 1889-1897. 
Harrington, Charles E. (Concord, N. H., 1846.) Dubuque, 1882-1885. 

Returned to New England. 
Hartsough, D. M. Exira, Avoca, Mason City, 1885-1889. Later an evan- 
gelist. 



384 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Hartsough, William W. (Fayette, Iowa, 1863.) U. B. Ministry, 1894- 

1899. Congregational, Doon, Exira, 1901-1903. 
Harvey, William F. (New Hampshire, 1827.) Webster City, Riceville, 

1864-1877. Continued to preach in destitute neighborhoods in Wright 

County until his death, December, 1889. 
Haskell, Jotham S. Mt. Pleasant in 1857 and Council Bluffs, 1858. No 

more in Iowa. 
Haskett, Charles A. Corning, 1902-1903. 
Haskins, Benjamin F. (New York, 1822.) Amity (College Springs), 

1856-1861. Died, April, 1887. 
Hassell, Richard. (Leeds, Eng., 1820.) Primitive Methodist, 1848-1850. 

Congregational pastorates in Wisconsin, 1855-1860. In Iowa, Kellogg, 

Eddyville, Fairfax, 1870-1887. Died in 1899. 
Hathaway, George W. (Massachusetts, 1807.) Residence at Grinnell, 

1860-1861. Died, July, 1891. 
Hawley, Henry K. Sloan, 1901-1904. Went to Wisconsin. 
Hawley, Z. Kent. (Connecticut.) Dubuque, 1839-1841. Returned to 

New England. Died, Memphis, Tenn., after the War. 
Hayes, Gordon. Many years pastor in Connecticut. Brighton, 1860- 

1864. Died, Muscatine, 1874. 

Hayward, W. H. (Boston, 1805.) Le Claire, Cass, Magnolia,18 56-1873. 

Died at Magnolia, 1876. 
Hazen, W. W. Baxter, Madison Co. First, Prairie City, 1888-1894. 
Healy, J. W. Iowa City, Ottumwa, 1875-1878. 
Heap, Allison R. (Kewaunee, 111., 1879.) Teaching to ministry, Whiting, 

1907-. 
Hebard, George D. A. (Vermont, 1831.) Presbyterian, Clinton, Iowa 

City, 1858-1861. Congregational, Iowa City, Oskaloosa, 1866-1870. 

Died at Oskaloosa, December 14, 1870. See Chapter X. 
Hein, George. (Russia, 1875.) Wilton College, Lansing Ridge, 1905-1906, 

Sherrill, Durango, 1907-. 
Helfenstein, Roy C. (Fairfield, la., 1885.) Student, Des Moines College. 

Adelphi, 1907-. 
Helms, Reuben C. Grant and Sutherland, 1882-1885; Washta, 1899-1901. 
Helms, S. D. (New York, 1815.) Andrew, West Union, Lima, 1850-1873. 

Died, March, 1888. 
Hemmenway, Samuel. (New Hampshire, 1809.) Brighton, Salem, 1858- 

1865. Died, October, 1893. 

Hempstead, Carl W. (Ohio, 1872.) Woden, Eddyville, 1902-1908. Vic- 
tor, 1908-. 

Henderson, Arthur S. Salem, Shenandoah, Atlantic, 1901-1910; Mus- 
catine, 1910-. 



WHO'S WHO 385 

Henderson, John R. (New Hampshire, 1872.) Pastorates, Vermont, 

Wisconsin, Minnesota, Clear Lake, Iowa, 1909-1911. Moved to Florida. 
Henderson, John H. Marshalltown, 1890-1893. 
Henn, Jacob. (Germany, 1835.) Evangelical Association. Des Moines, 

Chicago, Muscatine, 1893-1901. Died, February 20, 1903. 
Henry, F. Edmunds. (Emmetsburg, 1873.) Iowa College, Garner, 1905- 

1908, Belle Plaine, 1908-. 
Herbrechter, F. Sabula, 1871-1873. 
Herr, Horace D. (Indiana, 1852.) Served U. B. Church. Congregational 

in Iowa, Muscatine, Ames, 1897-1905; Humboldt and Weaver, 1905. 
Herrick, H. Martyn. Charles City, 1893-1895. 
Herrick, Stephen L. (Vermont, 1800.) Crown Point, 1826-1853; Grin- 

nell, 1855-1860. Died at Grinnell, July, 1886. 
Herron, George D. Burlington, 1891-1893. Professor, Iowa College, 

1893-1900. 
Hertel, Arthur F. Davenport German, 1892-1893. 
Hess, Carl V. (Germany, 1818.) Missionary in Clayton County, 1847 to 

death, June, 1855. 
Hess, Carl. (Clayton County, 1855.) Iowa College, Sherrill, Daven- 
port, 1884-1889. General Missionary, 1890-1895. Secretary Wilton 

College, 1895-1900. Then moved to Kansas. 
Hess, Henry. (Germany, 1840.) Fort Atkinson and New Hampton, Ger- 
man, 1867-1892. Died, October, 1908. 
Hetzler, Henry. SherrilTs Mound, Grandview, Muscatine, Pine Creek, 

1872-1882. 
Heu, de Bourch. Dyersville, 1858-1866. 
Heyward, James W. Clear Lake, 1897-1903. Billings, Mont., and then 

to Episcopal Church. 
Hicks, George C. Red Oak, 1870-1871. 
Hicks, Frank B. Clear Lake, 1890-1893; Lyons, 1895-1897. Became a 

physician. 
Hicks, William C. Jewell, Union, Cromwell, Steamboat Rock, 1889-1900. 
Higganbotham, T. M. (Kentucky, 1868.) Postville, 1902-1904. Later 

pastorates in Ohio and Illinois. 
Hill, Edwin S. (Ohio, 1837.) Grove City, 1866-1869; Atlantic, 1869- 

1905. Residence in California. 
Hill, James J. Member of the Iowa Band. See Chapters IV and X. 
Hill, Virgil B. (Tabor, 1869.) Tabor College, Waucoma, Mitchellville, 

Allison, Rockwell, 1894-1907; agent, Tabor College, 1909-. 
Hilliard, D. Lee. Decorah, Earlville and Almoral, 1893-1898. 
Hilton, W. H. CoUege Springs, 1888-1890. 
Hindley, George. Avoca, 1875-1880. 

26 



386 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Hines, Herbert H. (Nebraska, 1890.) Iowa University. Centerdale, 

1909-. 
Hinckley, Abbie R. Forest City, Riceville, 1889-1893. 
Hinman, Herbert J. (Wisconsin, 1872.) Lewis, Mt. Pleasant, 1902-1906; 

Cresco, 1906-. 
Hitchcock, A. B. (Massachusetts, 1814.) Illinois College. Davenport, 

1841-1843. Many years at Moline, 111., where he died, December, 

1873. 
Hitchcock, George B. (Massachusetts, 1812.) Oskaloosa, Eddyville, 

Lewis, 1853-1861. Exira and Harrison, 1863-1865. Died in 1872. 
Hix, Lemon B. (Ohio, 1854.) U. B. pastorate, Muscatine, eleven years; 

Eagle Grove, Marshalltown, 1903-1910; Waterloo, Plymouth, 1910-. 
Hobart, Milo. (New York, 1831.) Residence, Mt. Pleasant, 1873-1888. 

Supply work. Died, February, 1889. 
Hobbs, William A. (Ohio, 1849.) Pastorates, Illinois and New York. 

Traer, 1899-1904. Died, April 20, 1904. 
Hock, A. S. Parkersburg, Elkader, 1904-1907. 
Hodgdon, Frank W. (Massachusetts, 1868.) Pastorates, Michigan and 

New Jersey; Des Moines Plymouth, 1903-1911. 
Holbrook, Ira A. Sioux Rapids, 1903-1905; Toledo, 1907-1908. Went 

back to U. B. Church. 
Holbrook, John C. (Vermont, 1808.) Dubuque, 1842-1853, 1855-1863. 

Later in New York and California. Died, August, 1900. 
Holcombe, Gilbert T. Glenwood, 1883-1887. Steamboat Rock, 1903- 

1904. 
Holman, Edwin C. Oskaloosa, 1892-1895. 
Holman, Edward E. H. Perkins, Sioux City Pilgrim, Elma, Radcliffe, 

Stuart, 1892-1901. 
Holmes, John A. Farnhamville, Toledo, 1898-1904. Later in California 

and Illinois. 
Holmes, Otis H. (Clay, la., 1869.) Cresco, 1896-1901, Algona, 1901.- 

Iowa Legislature, 1906, 1908 and 1910. 
Holmes, Thomas H. Clay, 1865-1872. Died at Clay, June 4, 1872. 
Holway, John W. Centerdale, 1904-1904. 
Holyoke, William E. (Ohio, 1821.) Illinois, 1850-1885. Eldon, West 

Burlington, Bentonsport, 1886-1890. Died in Chicago, December, 

1903. 
Horner, John W. Belknap, 1876-1878; New Hampton, Independence, 

Valley Junction, 1891-1902. 
Hooker, Amos H. Ogden, 1903-1904. Went to California. 
Hoover, Frank W. (Newtohville, la., 1869.) Belknap, Cincinnati, 1892- 

1895. Drowned in 1906. 



WHO'S WHO 387 

Hopkins, Fred E. (New York, 1857.) Dubuque, 1891-1900. Englewood, 
Chicago, 1900-1910. 

Horine, Stephen D. (Wisconsin, 1858.) Primghar, Grant, Castana, Og- 
den, 1888-1896. Stricken with paralysis in 1896, but still living at 
Whittier, Cal., in 1911. 

Horn, Charles H. Principal Grinnell Academy, 1902-1911. 

Home, John F. Independence, Peterson, Washta, 1886-1903. 

Hotzie, William H. Independence, Allison, 1904-1906. Went into school 
work. 

Houghton, Amasa H. (Vermont, 1801.) Lansing, 1863-1875. Residence, 
Lansing, 1856-1884. Died, July, 1884. 

House, Albert V. Glenwood, Otho, Manson, Lawler, 1862-1875. Died in 
1875. 

House, R. E. Waucoma, Lamoille, 1903-1904. 

Houston, Albert S. (Denmark, 1851.) Academy, Iowa College. Micro- 
nesia, 1882-1885; Clarion, Gilman, 1886-1893. Died, March, 1899. 

Howie, Robert. (Scotland, 1875.) Golden Prairie, 1905-1906. 

Hoyt, Henry N. (New York, 1848.) Charles City, 1883-1886. Later 
Oak Park and New England. Died at Boston, November, 1910. 

Hoyt, James S. (Connecticut, 1830.) Eighteen years at Port Huron, 
Mich. Keokuk, 1884-1890. Died, March 4, 1890. 

Hudson, J. M. Bradford, Earlville, 1872-1875. 

Huffman, S. J. Lamoille, Amelia, Riceville, 1904r-1910; Baxter, 1910. 

Hughes, Isaac C. Long Creek, 1875-1877. Beacon, 1881-1884. 

Hughes, Robert W. (Wales, 1841.) A Calvinistic Methodist until 1883. 
Polk City, Crocker, Prairie Hill, Des Moines Moriah, 1883-1887. Pas- 
tor at large, 1887-1889. Agent Bible Society, 1889-1898. The next 
ten years supplied here and there. 

Huget, J. Percival. (Fort Dodge, 1873.) Teacher, Coe College and State 
University. Pastorates: Cedar Rapids, 1903-1907; Galesburg, 111., 
1907-1910, Detroit, Mich., 1910-. 

Hurlbert, Sanford. West Union and Fayette, 1859-1860. 

Hurlbut, Joseph. (Vermont, 1793.) Fort Atkinson, 1857-1874. Died, 
April, 1874. 

Hulbert, Jay M. (Vermont, 1860.) Clinton, 1895-1899. Later in Min- 
nesota and Illinois. 

Humphrey, Chester C. Cass, College Springs, 1863-1869; Waucoma, 
Wayne, Hickory Grove, Cincinnati, Cromwell, 1884-1889. 

Humphries, Oliver M. (New Providence, la., 1875.) Silver Creek, Keck, 
Colesburg, Oto, 1901-1904. 

Hunt, Theo. C. Riceville, 1904-1909. Later in Illinois. 

Hunter, George F. (Quasqueton, la., 1855.) Hawarden, 1887-1889. 
Died, October, 1891. 



388 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Hunter, Hamilton D. Cherokee, 1902-1904. Later in Missouri. 
Hunter, Robert. Clay, Columbus City, Nevinville, 1855-1872. Died, 

1872. 
Hurd, Fayette. (Michigan, 1835.) Pastorates in Michigan. In Iowa, 

Montour and Cherokee, 1868-1878. Later, Michigan and Missouri. 
Hutchinson, Horace. One of the Iowa Band. Burlington, 1843-1846. 

See Chapters IV and V. 
Hutchinson, John C. Iowa City, 1859-1859. Returned to New England. 
Hurst, George B. Perry, 1889-1889. 
Hyde, Charles H. Knoxville, 1904-1907. 
Ijems, William E. (Ohio, 1830.) Founded Iowa Institute for Deaf and 

Dumb at Iowa City and was the principal, 1854-1863. Pastor, Iowa 

City, 1871-1874. Died, April, 1893. 
Irwin, C. S. Anita, 1873-1875. 

Jackson, William. Ocheyedan, Golden Prairie, 1902-1905. 
James, George W. Hiteman, 1901-1903. 
James, John. (Cornwall, Eng., 1880.) Westfield, 1908-. 
James, Lydia I. Otho, 1905-1907. 
James, Thomas I. Gait, Otho, 1902-1905. 
Jamison, Robert W. (Canada, 1855.) Elliott, Cromwell, Sioux City, 

Mayflower, 1883-1897. Evangelist, 1897-. 
Jansen, Jacob E. Alvord, 1907-. 
Jenkins, David. Bloomneld, Monticello, 1877-1881. 
Jenkins, James. Long Creek, 1901-1903. 
Jenkins, David I. De Witt, 1886-1887. 
Jenkins, Thomas P. Pastorates, New York, Ohio and Missouri; Long 

Creek, 1909-. 
Jewell, George C. (New York, 1844.) Lewis, Creston Pilgrim, Kellogg, 

Chester, 1892-1907. 
Johnson, Brent. General Missionary among the Scandinavians, 1885- 

1890. 
Johnson, Lorenzo C. Britt Scandinavian, 1888-1890. 
Johnson, P. Adelstein. (Iceland, 1868.) Tabor College. Iowa pastorate, 

Ottumwa, 1900-1907. Home Missionary secretary, 1907-. 
Johnson, William J. LeMars, 1897-1900. Springfield, 111., 1900. 
Johnston, Frank L. Valley Junction, Mount Pleasant, 1896-1904. Went 

to Missouri. 
Johnston, William G. Center Point, Peterson, Newell, Mllford, 1891- 

1903. 
Jones, Abram. Williamsburg, 1896-1902. 

Jones, Amos. (Manchester, Eng., 1835.) Colesburg, Dyersville, Fair- 
fax, Rock Rapids, 1874-1883. Died, 1886. 



WHO'S WHO 389 

Jones, Cadwalader. Beacon, 1874-1879. 

Jones, Daniel. Monticello, Fairfax, 1865-1870. 

Jones, Darius E. (New York, 1815.) See Chapter XI. 

Jones, Irvin M. Givin and Beacon, 1884-1888. 

Jones, John A. Foreston and Florence, 1864-1871. 

Jones, Jay J. Parkersburg, 1903-1903; Salem, 1905-1907; Marion, 1909- 

Jones, John E. (South Wales, 1828.) Pastorates, Pennsylvania and Ohio. 

Iowa: Long Creek, Old Man's Creek, 1882-1894. Residence, Iowa 

City, 1890-. 
Jones, James T. (England, 1862.) Mansfield College. Pastorates in 

Pennsylvania, 1897-1908; Iowa City, 1908-. 
Jones, Lemuel. (Manchester, Eng., 1833.) Bellevue, 1865-1866. Other 

pastorates East and South. Died, July, 1902. 
Jones, Morris M. Old Man's Creek, 1856-1859. 
Jones, Newton I. Mount Pleasant, 1877-1878. 
Jones, Richard T. Correctionville, Sioux Rapids, 1902-1908; Clinton, 

1908-. 
Jones, Paul W. (Michigan, 1871.) Belmond, 1909-1910; Alden, 19 10-. 
Jones, Samuel. (North Wales, 1829.) Long Creek, Gomer, Cleveland, 

1872-1887. Died, February, 1904. 
Jones, Tudor. (North Wales, 1804.) Came to United States, 1846; Du- 
buque, 1856; Georgetown and Beacon, 1861-1865. Died, November, 

1893. He was the father of Amos and Lemuel. 
Jones, William. (Manchester, Eng., 1841.) Center Point, Salem, Eldon, 

Larchwood, 1886-1896. Died at Larchwood, May, 1896. 
Jones, William Hugh. (North Wales, 1845.) Pastorates, Wales and 

Pennsylvania. Long Creek, 1888-1890. Died, May, 1908. 
Jordan, Albert H. (Fairfield, la., 1879.) Mason City, 1905-1907. St. 

Louis, Mo., First Church, 1907-. 
Judiesch, Frederick W. (Prussia, 1820.) Pine Creek, Grand view, Daven- 
port, 1853-1892. Died, May, 1900. 
Judkins, Benj. Keokuk, 1868-1870. 
June, Franklin S. Native of Vermont. Vacation work, 1883. Corning, 

Charles City, 1884-1888. Died at Charles City, March 19, 1888. 
Kasson, Jas. H. Almoral, 1858-1860. 
Kaufman, Wm. H. Fairfax, Strawberry Point, 1886-1888, Cresco, 1890- 

1891, Hull, 1894-1896. 
Kaye, A. Cato. Oskaloosa, 1899-1907. Returned to the Presbyterians. 
Keagy, Franklin W. Lewis, Harlan, 1907-1909. 
Keeler, Azra B. Cass, Tripoli, Earlville and Almoral, Waterloo Union, 

1902-1908. 
JCeeler, Ernest M. Silver Creek, Keck, Colesburg, 1904-1907, 



390 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Keith, Wm. A. (Maine, 1810.) Maquoketa, Tipton, Decorah, Brook- 
field, 1846-1866. 
Kennedy, Joseph R. (Belfast, Ireland, 1828.) Salem, Glasglow, Clay, 

1858-1865. 
Kennedy, Wm. M. (Scotland, 1879.) Gilman, 1909. 
Kent, Aratus. See Chapters II and IX. 
Kent, Everts. (Benson, Vt., 1843.) Eldora, Victor, Dunlap, 1889-1905. 

Back to Vermont. 
Kent, Lawrence G. (England, 1860.) Muscatine, Emmetsburg, Le 

Mars, 1895-1904. State Sec'y, Y. P. S. C. E. 
Kent, Thos. Waucoma, Lawler, Earlville and Almoral, 1878-1885. Died, 

1910. 
Kent, Wm. Otho, Fort Dodge, Iowa Falls, etc., 1857-1862. 
Kenyon, Fergus L. (Scotland, 1833.) Iowa City, 1878-1885. Later 

Pres. Col. in Fort Dodge, Principal Academy and Pastor in Illinois. 

Died, 1902. 
Kenyon, Frank E. Denmark, 1895-1897. 
Kern, Andrew. Grandview, 1878-1886. Minden, Lansing Ridge, New 

Hampton, etc., 1891-1906. 
Kerr, Robt. (Scotland, 1829.) Mitchell, 1878-1881. Later in Illinois, 

Kansas and Wisconsin. Died, June, 1890. 
Kershaw, C. H. Hull, 1896-1898. 
Keyes, Chas. H. (Canada, 1858.) Oskaloosa, 1886-1890. Ravenwood 

Chicago until death in 1897. 
Kidder, Sam'l T. "A Wisconsin Man." McGregor, 1910-. 
Kimball, Edw. P. See Chapter XIV. 
Kimball, Edw. (Iowa, 1850.) Iowa. Col. Hastings, 1878-1880. Miles, 

on farm, 1880-1909. Later residence, in Illinois. 
Kimball, Jas. P. (Townsend, Vt., 1828.) Keokuk, 1855-1859. Returned 

to N. E. Died, May, 1882. 
King, B. Garnavillo, 1871-1874. Died in 1875. 
King, Henry D. (New York, 1823.) Magnolia, 1856-1863. 
King, Willett D. (Iowa, 1868.) Moorland, Mizpah, Allison, Bear Grove, 

1895-1903. Later in Nebraska. 
Kinzer, Addison D. (Ind., 1845.) Union, New Providence, Hampton, 

Des Moines Pilgrim, Perry, Lyons, Marion, 1871-1905. Later work 

in Washington. 
Kirkwood, James. (Scotland, 1846.) In M. P. work, 1879-1902. Silver 

Creek, Keck, Bear Grove, 1902-1907, Cromwell, 1907-. 
Klose, Wm. H. (Pennsylvania, 1864.) Mitchell, Manson, Bellevue, 

Monona, 1888-1899. Later in College work. 
Kluckhohn, Edw, F t Grandview, 1892-1894, 



WHO'S WHO 391 

Knipe, Samuel. Larchwood, 1897-1898. 

Knodell, Jas. P. Eldora, 1879-1883; S. S. Supt., 1883-1884, Mason City, 

1885-1888 and 1893-1903. Later in California and Oregon. 
Knowles, David. (Manchester, England, 1811.) Long Creek, Old Man's 

Creek, Flint Creek, Columbus City, Crawfordsville, Wilton, etc., 

1845-1879. Nebraska 20 years. Died, 1899. 
Ladd, Geo. E. (Vermont, 1865) Robert Col., 1891-1894. Pastorates 

Vermont and Rhode Island, Red Oak, 1907-1910, Colorado, 1910-. 
LaDue, S. P. Anamosa and Cass, Mitchell, Rockford, Rock Grove, 

Ulster, Irving, Plymouth, 1855-1870. 
LaDue, Thos. Waterloo, 1857-1858. Joined the Free Methodists. 
Lamb, Geo. C. Marshalltown, 1882-1886. Joined the Presbyterians. 
Lamb, H. B, Burr Oak, 1873-1875. 
Lambley, Morley. Emmetsburg, 1905-1908. Went south, but returned 

in 1911. 
Lamphear, Walter C. (Connecticut, 1866.) Masonville, 1894-1895. 

Returned to Connecticut. 
Lane, Bradford B. (Canada, 1838.) Highland, 1873-1883. Residing 

on farm near by in 1911. 
Lane, Daniel. One of the Iowa Band. See Chapters IV and XII. 
Langdon, Geo. M. (Connecticut, 1834.) Illinois, New York and Massa- 
chusetts. Washington, Iowa, 1872-1873. Died, September, 1895. 
Langpaap, Henry. Grandview, Pine Creek, Davenport, Garnavillo, 

Lansing Ridge, etc., 1859-1868. 
Lansborough, John. Gaza, Runnells, Bear Grove, 1900-1904. 
Larkin, Wallace. Chapin, 1899-1900, Oakland, 1903-1905. 
Latham, Ernest R. Fort Dodge, 1894-1897 
Lavender, Robt. F. Hartwick, Polk City, Gilman, 1884-1898. S. S. 

Work 1898-1903. Wittemberg, 1903-. 
Lawrence, Harris N. Grand River, Buffalo Center, 1889-1894. 
Lawrence, H. O. Madison Co. First, Grand River, Orient, 1891-1895. 
Lawson, Francis. Brighton, Clay, Durant, Moville, 1882-1891. Later 

in Nebraska and California. 
Leavitt, Wm. (Maine, 1829.) Maine, Vermont, Minnesota, Monticello, 

Fayette, 1870-1878. Later in Nebraska. Died, Oct., 1904. 
Lee, Frank T. Muscatine, 1892-1894. Returned to Illinois. Later in 

Washburn, Col. 
Lee, Vinton. Gait, 1900-1902, Cedar Rapids, Bethany, 1905-1907, 

Onawa, 1907-. 
Leeper, Edw. A. (Dover, Ills., 1847.) Red Oak, 1884-1889. Later in 

New York and Ohio. 
Lees, Henry. Waucoma, 1875-1878. 



392 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Leichliter, Albert M. (Pennsylvania, 1851.) U. B. 1884-1891. Larch- 
wood, Runnells, Peterson, Aurelia, Gowrie, Ruthven, 1891-1902. 
Retired to Spencer but continued supply work. 

Leonard, Aaron L. (Pennsylvania, 1812.) Gen'l Miss'y, 1847-1850. 
Danville, 1856-1863. Died in New York, July, 1900. 

Leonard, Abner. Father of Aaron. Residence in Iowa, without charge 
from 1845 to time of death in 1857. 

Lewis, David R. (Wales, 1825.) Supplied at Beacon and Givin early 
70s. Died, January, 1892. 

Lewis, Franklin C. Castana, Gaza, Primghar, 1895-1904. 

Lewis, G. W. Old Man's Creek, 1850-1854. 

Lewis, Thos. G. Blairsburg, 1891-1893. 

Lewis, Wm. D. (Wales, 1883.) Former pastorate in Pennsylvania, 
Maquoketa, 1909. 

Lewis, Wm. W. (Iowa, 1859.) Waucoma, 1889-1893. Later in Minne- 
sota. Died, 1901. 

Little, Chas. (Connecticut, 1819.) Iowa pastorates, 1874-1888, at 
Corning, Lewis and Clay. Died, August, 1892. 

Little, Wilbur G. Blencoe, Allison, Lakeview, 1894-1898. Became a 
physician. 

L'.ttlefield, Oz'as. (Massachusetts, 1803.) See Chapters VII and XI. 

Litts, Palmer. (New York, 1835.) Iowa pastorat.es, 1874-1904 at Lans- 
ing, Central City, Waucoma, Union, Orchard, Miles and Stillwater, 
Popejoy and Dinsdale. Died, July, 1906. 

Lloyd, John. Moville, 1900-1901. 

Locke, Robt. J. (Ontario, 1876.) Redfield College, Illinois, 1901-1907, 
Ottumwa, 1907-. 

Lockridge, Geo. C. (Kentucky, 1845.) Center Point, 1877-1892. Later, 
Kansas and Wisconsin. Died, 1903. 

Long, Henry H. Bondurant, 1895-1898. Residence Des Moines, 1898-. 

Long, Harry B. Iowa Falls, 1889-1890. 

Long, Geo. O. Bondurant and Linn Grove, 1905-1907. 

Loomis, Aritas F. Postville, Garden Prairie, 1882-1887. 

Loos, Wm. (Wisconsin, 1872.) Sherrill, Durango, Davenport, 1900- 
1907. Later in Minnesota and South Dakota. 

Loring, Asa T. Manchester, Osage, 1860-1868. Deceased. 

Losey, John B. Des Moines Pilgrim, 1902-1907. 

Lower, David M. (Indiana, 1859.) Agency, 1898-1906. Webster, 
1907-. 

Lowery, John B. Harrison, (Dunlap,) 1866-1867. 

Lowry, Oscar. An independent Evangelist residing in 1911 at Cedar Falls. 

Ludden, W. W. Magnolia, 1855-1856, 



WHO'S WHO 393 

Luxford, Frederick. Magnolia, Washta, 1904-1905. 

Lyman, Addison. (Massachusetts, 1813.) Illinois, 1847-1854, Geneseo 

Sem., Sheffield, 1854-1868, Kellogg, 1868-1870. Died at Grinnell, 

May 7, 1902. 
Lyman, Chas. N. (Connecticut, 1835.) Pastorate in Connecticut; 

served in the Civil War. Iowa pastorates Dunlap, Onawa, Alden, 

1868-1902. Died at Alden, July, 1905. 
Lyman, Henry M. (Illinois, 1858.) Iowa Col. Summers, 1887 and 1888 

in Iowa work. Denmark, 1910. 
Lyman, Timothy. Lansing, 1850-1855. 

Lynde, Chas. E. Home Des Moines; Iowa Col. Summers, 1906 at Rock- 
ford; Manchester, 1907-1908. 
Lyon, Asa P. (New York, 1837.) M. E. churches in New York and 

Massachusetts. In Iowa, 1884-1888, at Perry and Rock Rapids. In 

1911 residing in New York. 
MacLeod, Alex. (Canada, 1858.) Glenwood in 1880. Died, March, 1896. 
Macnab, Donald R. Sabula, McGregor, 1870-1872. 
Madulet, J. B. Dubuque and SherrilTs Mound German, 1849-1851. 
Magoun, Fred H. (Bath, Me., 1852.) Iowa Col. Gilman, Newburg, 

Storm Lake, 1878-1885. Died, April, 1885. 
Magoun, Geo. F. (Bath Me., 1821.) Davenport, Lyons, 1855-1864. 

Pres. Iowa Col., 1865-1884. Died, 1896. 
Mallory, Ira O. Otho, 1907-1909, Manson, 1909-. 
Mannhardt, E. G. L. Wilton German, 1894-1897. 
Manson, Albert. (Canada, 1803.) Marion, 1854-1858. Central City, 

1858-1864. Quasqueton, 1864-1871 and 1883-1884. Died, September, 

1888. 
Manwell, B. F. Lawler, 1873-1874. Died in office. 
Marble, Wm. H. (New Hampshire, 1822.) Waterloo, 1865-1868. 

Grundy Center, 1872-1874. Died, September, 1903. 
Marks, Julius. Kellogg, Blairsburg, 1890-1895. 
Marsh, Alfred F. (Massachusetts, 1837.) New Hampshire and Illinois. 

Fairfield, 1892-1899. Supplied Hiteman, Strawberry Point, West 

Burlington and Clay. Died, March, 1909. 
Marsh, Burton E. (Massachusetts, 1872.) Iowa pastorates, 1901-1910, 

at Nora Springs, Sloan and Farragut. Later in Nebraska. 
Marsh, Chas. E. Soldier River, Mondamin, Center Point and Colesburg, 

etc., 1884-1887. 
Marsh, Geo. Manson, Eldon, 1896-1898. 

Marsh, Geo. D. (Vermont, 1844.) Iowa Col., Miss'y, Turkey, 1872-. 
Marsh, Geo. L. Iowa Col., Valley Jet., Alden, 1903-1906. Later in Cali- 
fornia. 



394 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Marsh, Hammond L. (Grinnell, 1858.) Iowa Col., Genoa Bluffs, Victor, 
Fairfield, Denmark, 1886-1895. 

Marsh, Geo. L. Magnolia, 1883-1885. 

Marsh, John T. (Connecticut, 1825.) Le Claire, 1855-1856. Died, 
March, 1884. 

Marsh, Robt. L. (Pennsylvania, 1860.) Humboldt, Weaver, Burling- 
ton, 1896-1906. Died, August, 1906. 

Marshall, Chapman A. (Dublin, 1838.) Burr Oak, Postville, New Hamp- 
ton, Nashua, Clinton, McGregor, 1871-1900. Died, June, 1906. 

Marshall, Chas. G. (Cresco, 1872.) Dickens, Britt, 1900-1906. Corn- 
ing, 1908-. 

Marsolf, C. A. Sioux City, Riverside, 1904-1906. Dickens, 1909-. 

Martin, Benj. F. Burlington, 1909-1910. Marshalltown, 1910- 

Martin, Cyril P. Cedar Rapids, Bethany, 1901-1904. 

Martin, David R. Sioux Rapids, 1908. 

Martin, E. H. Reinbeck, 1878-1880. 

Martin, John L. Moorland, Mizpah, Gait, 1904-1908. Dinsdale, 1908-. 

Martin, Samuel A. Iowa Col., Van Cleve, Lamoille, Rowan, Orchard, 
etc., 1884-1906. 

Marvin, Chas. S. Riceville, 1868-1870. 

Marvin, John T. (New York, 1849.) Iowa Col., Anita, Corning, 1893- 
1897. Shell Rock, 1904-1906. Pastorates also at Van Cleve and 
Cincinnati. LakevLew, 1909-. 

Mason, Jas. D. (New York, 1838.) Iowa, 1864-1910. Died, February 
1, 1910. See Chapter XIV. 

Mason, O. H. L. Shell Rock, Green Mountain, Reinbeck, 1895-1901. 

Mason, Phillip H. Corning, 1899-1902. 

Mather, J. A. Bruce, Bear Grove, Harlan, Garner, 1891-1907. 

Mather, Joseph. (Pennsylvania, 1800.) Red Rock, Elk Creek, Fonta- 
nels, 1853-1862. Died at Red Rock. 

Mathews, Luther P. Garnavillo, Yankee Settlement, Colesburg, Post- 
ville, 1855-1878. Died in Nebraska, March, 1909. 

Maxwell, Thos. Ionia, 1902-1903. Returned to the M. E. Church. 

May, Nelson H. U. B. Minister. Berwick, 1903-1906. Later in South 
Dakota. 

McArthur, Henry G. McGregor, 1859-1860. 

McCleary, Owen L. Ionia, Elma, Mitchell and Olds, 1899-1905. 

McClelland, Thos. (Ireland, 1846.) Denmark Academy, 1875-1877. 
Prof. Tabor, 1880-1891. Pres. Forest Grove, 1891-1900. Pres. 
Knox Col., 1900-. 

McConnell, Alex. S. (Ohio, 1838.) Presbyterian pastorates, 1868-1872. 
Congregational pastorates Missouri and Kansas, 1872-1876. Cresco, 



WHO'S WHO 395 

1876-1890. Deadwood, S. D., 1890-1899, Wesley, 1899-1900. Died at 

Webster City, June, 1903. 
McCord, John D. (Illinois, 1834.) 22 years a Presbyterian. 22 years 

Congregational pastor and evangelist. Gowrie, 1904-1906. In 1911, 

residing at Lake City. 
McCord, Robt. L. (Illinois, 1830.) Pastorates in Illinois for nearly 40 

years. After 1890, residence Lake City. Supplied at Lake View, 

Silver Creek and Keck. Died, December, 1909. 
McClure, Edw. S. Hummeston and Eldon, 1901-1904. Runnells, 1908- 

1909. 
McCorkle, W. A. (Iowa, 1858.) M. P. pastor two years. Orient, 

Tripoli, 1904-1909. Died, May, 1909. 
McCorkle, E. R. (Iowa, 1868.) Baxter, Orient, Central City, Preston, 

1901-1910. 
McDermid, Duncan. (Toronto, 1824.) Presbyterian minister. Supplied 

Fontanelle, Sabula, 1889-1893. Died, 1897. 
McDougal, Geo. L. Kelley, 1900-1901. 
McDuffee, Sam'l V. (Vermont, 1835.) Wayne (Olds), 1868-1870. 

Returned to New England. Died, February, 1904. 
Mcintosh, Chas. H. (New York, 1852.) Anita, 1880-1882. Died in 

Wisconsin, November, 1906. 
McKinley, Chas. E. (Anita, 1870.) Iowa Col., Cedar Rapids Bethany, 

1891-1892. Pastorates in Maine and Connecticut. 
McKinley, Geo. A. Westfield, Genoa Bluffs, Shell Rock, Rockford, 

1899-1905. 
McLauren, Jas. H. Anamosa, 1902-1904. Started the new building. 
McLoney, John N. (Ohio, 1848.) Iowa Col., Sioux City, 1877-1878. 

Returned to South Dakota. Died, March, 1884. 
McLeod, Norman. Humboldt, 1878-1879. 
McMurray, Joseph E. Brighton and Washington, 1856-1857. Returned 

to Illinois. 
McNamara, John E. Rock Rapids, 1880-1882, Sioux City Pilgrim, 

Sloan, Onawa, 1887-1903. 
McNeel, A. W. Dinsdale, Mitchell, Arion, Garden Prairie, 1894-1905. 
McSkimming, David D. Silver Creek and Keck, Whiting, Forest City, 

1898-1904. 
Mead, Willis W. Clarion, Sibley, 1884-1886. Foreign Missionary, 1886-. 
Melvin, Chas. S. Riceville, 1868-1870. Returned to the Presbyterians. 
Menzi, Ernest U. Polk City, 1901-1902. 
Merriam, John. New Hampton, 1881-1882. 
Merrill, James G. (Massachusetts, 1840.) Kansas pastorate, 1866-1869. 

Supt. Kansas, 1870-1872. Davenport, 1872-1882. Pastorates in 



396 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

St. Louis and Portland, Me. President Fiske XL, 1899-1908. Somer- 
set, Mass., 1908-. 
Merrill, Orville W. Anamosa, 1862-1870. See Chapter X. 
Merrill, Thos. (Virginia, 1817.) Free Presb. Ch. Wittemberg, 1854-1861. 

Congregational pastorates, Wittemberg, Fairfield, Bloomfield, etc., 

1865-1887, Wittemberg, Baxter, 1885-1887. Died, 1899. 
Merrithew, Frank. (Keokuk, 1864.) Ellsworth, Jewell, Lincoln, 1906- 

1908. 
Mershom, Jas. R. (Kentucky, 1815.) Marion, 1852-1853. Residence 

Newton, 1854 to time of death July, 1901. 
Messmer, W. S. Belle Plaine, 1875-1876. 
Michael, Albert. Kingsley, 1891-1894. 
Miles, Milo N. (Connecticut, 1807.) Ministry in Michigan and Illinois. 

Declining years in Iowa. Died, July, 1901. For a time before his 

death the oldest Yale Graduate of class, 1831. 
Miller, Mrs. Eva K. Agency City, 1897-1898. 
Miller, Samuel A. Eldon, 1893-1897. Later in Illinois. 
Miller, Jacob G. Manchester, Alden, Nora Springs, 1882-1893. Retired. 
Milligan, Henry F. (Pennsylvania, 1868.) Reformed Episcopal pas- 
torates. Congregational in Chicago, 1906-1910. Dubuque, 1910-. 
Millikan, Silas F. (Ohio, Sept., 1834.) McGregor, Maquoketa, Mason 

City, Anamosa, Kingsley, 1873-1905. 
Mills, Harlow S. (Clay, la., 1846.) Denmark Academy, Iowa Col., 

Dunlap, 1877-1883. Later, Oregon, South Dakota, Illinois, Michigan. 
Mills, Henry. Independence, 1868-1870. 
Milne, Geo. Creston Pilgrim, Fontanelle, 1904-1909. 
Minchin, Wm. J. (Massachusetts, 1865.) N. B. and Massachusetts. 

Ames, 1906-. 
Mintier, James H. (Iowa, 1860.) Pastorates in Minnesota and Kansas. 

Polk City, 1904-. 
Mitchell, Ammi R. (Maine, 1826.) Salem, 1856-1857. Farmington, 

1862-1863. Died, May, 1900. 
Mitchell, Jas. J. Wittemberg, Chester Center, Prairie City, De Witt, 

1883-1907. 
Monroe, Benj. F. See Chapter XI. 
Moody, Calvin B. (Pastorates in Vermont.) Osage, 1888-1892. Later 

Minneapolis and N. E. President Oklahoma College, 1910-. 
Moore, Adna W. Blairsburg, Manson, Reinbeck, 1895-1904. Later 

in Colorado. 
Moore, Chas. A. (Ontario, 1860.) Pastorates Wisconsin and Illinois, 

1898-1903. Davenport, 1903-1910. Died, January 17, 1911. 
Moore, John F. Clear Lake, 1903-1908, Manchester, 1908- 



WHO'S WHO 397 

Moore, Mark E. (Indiana, 1838.) Many years a Methodist. Belknap, 

1900-1906. Died, March, 1906. 
Moore, W. Howard. Sibley, 1904-1907. 
Morach, Jacob. (Switzerland, 1859.) Avoca German, 1897-1904. 

Later in Nebraska and South Dakota. 
More, Edwin. Clinton, 1891-1895. Returned to Illinois. 
Morley, John H. Magnolia and Sioux City, 1866-1876. Winona, Supt. 

H. M. S., Minnesota. Pres. Fargo College, New England pastorates. 
Morong, Thos. (Alabama, 1827.) Iowa City, 1856-1858. Later in 

New England. Died, Boston, April, 1894. 
Morse, Chas. H. Rock Rapids, Cedar Rapids Bethany, Muscatine, 

1884-1889. 
Morse, Jas. E. Webster, 1872-1881. 
Mosher, Albert E. (Wisconsin, 1860.) Creston Pilgrim, Hastings, 1887- 

1889. Died, January, 1895. 
Mote, Henry W. College Springs, 1892-1894. Returned to England. 
Moulton, Ezra C. (Quebec, 1829.) Fayette, Mason City, New Hampton, 

Humboldt, Ames, Shenandaoh, Red Oak, Corning, 1876-1899. 
Moulton, Rowland C. Runnells, Des Moines Moriah, 1893-1896. 
Moxie, Chas. H. Alton, Avoca, 1907-1910. 
Mumby, Robt. Fayette, Dinsdale, Golden, Quasqueton, Pleasant Prairie, 

1888-1906. Died, September 20, 1908. 
Munger, Earl A. Van Cleve, Jewell, 1904-1906. Went to Oberlin Sem. 

Later, Washington. 
Musil, John. Iowa City, Luzerne and Vining Bohemian, 1888-1891. 
Myers, Benj. F. (Iowa, 1867.) Elliott, Bear Grove, Blairsburg, Garner, 

Miles, 1896-1909, Lewis, 1909-. 
Nelson, Chas. E. Britt Scandinavian, 1910-. Born in Wisconsin, 1871. 

Gradated from Chicago Sem. 
Nelson, Geo. W. Silver Creek and Keck, 1892-1894. 
Nelson, John W. Toledo, 1895-1898. Kewanee, Ills., 1898- 
Newcomb, Aaron S. Pattersonville (Hull), 1882-1886. Later Wisconsin 

and California. 
Newhall, Charles. Postville, Tipton, 1880-1885. 
Nichols, Annie O. Sioux City Riverside, 1895-1901. Later Miss'y 

work in city. 
Nicholas, D. B. Warren, Lee Co., 1849-1853. 

Nine, L. Walter. Mitchellville, 1905-1906. Returned to U. B. Church. 
Noble, Chas. (New York, 1847.) Pastorates, New York, New Jersey, 

A. M. A. work, Charles City, 1888-1893. Prof. I. C. 1893-. 
Norris, John S. (Isle of Wight.) Evangelistic work and pastorates in 

Iowa, 1883-1892 and 1899-1900. Died, 1907. 



398 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

North, Wm. C. (Ireland, 1876.) Pastorates in Michigan, 1897-1906. 

Prairie City, 1909-. 
Northrop, Joseph A. (New York, 1810.) Residence Otisville, 1860 to 

time of death 1880. 
Northrop, Bryon W. (Pennsylvania, 1877.) Alexander, 1904-1906, 

Farnhamville, 1906-. 
Nourse, Robt. (England, 1841.) Pastorates in England, Illinois and 

Wisconsin, Mount Pleasant, 1873-1874. Died, 1902. 
Nutting, John K. (Massachusetts, 1832.) Polk City, Bradford, Monti- 
cello, Glenwood, 1858-1873, Glenwood again, 1890-1895, Buffalo 

Center, Thompson, Gaza, Sioux Rapids, College Springs and Farming- 
ton, 1895-1904. Later in Florida. 
Nyhan, Joseph E. (St. Louis, Missouri.) Iowa Col., Van Cleve, 1905- 

1908, Hartwick, 1908-1909. Then to Harvard. 
Nystrom, John O. Ottumwa Swedish, 1891-1896. 
Oadams, Thomas S. Lyons, Maquoketa, Keosauqua, 1887-1896. 
Oakey, James. Cresco, 1891-1893. 

Ogilvie, Daniel M. Earlville and Almoral, Oakland, Ionia, 1893-1901. 
Ogle, Wm. H. (Ohio, 1848.) U. B. connection, 1871-1891, Silver Creek 

and Keck, 1906-1909. 
Olds, C. Burnell. Buffalo Center, 1902-1903. Foreign Miss'y Work, 

1903-. 
Olmstead, Julian H. (New York, 1868.) South Dakota pastorates, 

Milford, 1903-1906, Clarion, 1906-. 
Olssen, Carl F. Ottumwa Swedish, 1901-1904. 
Orth, Andrew. Davenport Bethlehem, 1893-1896. 
Orvis, Gurney M. Native of Ohio. Nevinville, Winthrop, 1880-1894. 

Dubuque Summit, 1894-. 
Osborn, Wm. H. Webster City, 1862-1864. 
Osborne, Naboth. (Cornwall, England, 1871.) Pastorates, New York, 

Illinois, Burlington, 1906-. 
Osgood, Robt. S. (Des Moines, 1873.) Iowa Col. Nebraska, Indiana, 

Belle Plaine, 1903-1908. Seattle, 1908. 
Osthoff, Eugene. Muscatine, 1900-1906. Returned to the Lutheran Ch. 
Owens, John T. Des Moines Moriah, 1879-1881. 
Owens, Owen. Long Creek, 1868-1871. 
Oxley, Chas. G. (Iowa, 1870.) Woden, Lamoille, Dickens, 1901-1907. 

Peterson, 1907-. 
Packard, Theophilus. Mount Pleasant, 1855-1858. 
Packard, N. Luther. (Massachusetts, 1857.) Nashua, Ionia, Bassett, 

Chickasaw, Buffalo Center, Riceville and Mclntire, 1886-1904. Genl. 

Miss'y, Nebraska, 1904-. 



WHO'S WHO 399 

Paddock, Geo. A. Keokuk, 1901-1906. Idaho, Oregon, 1906. 

Page, Merritt B. Chicago Sem., Nashua, 1870, May-Sept. Died, Sep- 
tember 6, 1870. 

Palmer, E. B. Born in Canada. Raised a Methodist. Pastorate, La- 
moille, 1909-1910. 

Palmer, Edward S. (Maine, April, 1827.) Pastorates in New England, 
Waverly, 1865-1867. Nebraska, Pennsylvania, etc. Died, August, 
1908. 

Palmer, Geo. W. (New York, 1819.) Pastorates in Ohio. Polk City, 
Ogden, Carroll, 1865-1878. Died, May, 1878. 

Palmer, John A. Sheldon, 1876-1877. 

Pardun, Wm. B. (Iowa, 1879.) Parkersburg, 1909. 

Parker, Alex. (Scotland, 1829.) Polk City, Humboldt, Mitchell, Parkers- 
burg, Miles, Preston, 1870-1885. Died, December, 1885. 

Parker, G. Russell. (Michigan, 1887.) First pastorate Alexander, 1909. 

Parker, Henry W. (New York, 1822.) Pastorates New York and Massa- 
chusetts, Prof. Iowa Col., 1865-1870, 1879-1889. Died, November 
1903. 

Parker, Jas. E. Sabula, 1908-1910. 

Parker, J. Homer. Storm Lake, 1875-1875. Later in Kansas and Okla- 
homa. 

Parker, Leonard F. (New York, 1825.) Public Schools Grinnell, 1856- 
1859; Iowa Col., 1859-1870, State Univ., 1870-1888, Iowa Col., 1888- 
1889. Prof. Emeritus, 1898-. 

Parks, Wm. U. Belmond, 1904-1909. Allison, 1909- 

Parlin, Jonathan B. Stacy ville, 1867-1869. 

Parmelee, Horace M. (New York, 1815.) Ohio and Wisconsin. Last 
ten years retired at Iowa Falls. Died July, 1880. 

Parmenter, Chas. O. (New York, 1831.) Army, 1862-1865. Garden 
Prairie, Cromwell, Kelley, 1874-1880. Died, December, 1880. 

Parsons, Chas. Moville, 1898-1900. Returned to Illinois. 

Parsons, James. Primghar, Harlan, 1898-1904. Later in Minnesota 
and Missouri. 

Patch, Isaac P. Le Mars, 1885-1887. Later Pres. Redfield Col. 

Patten, Wm. A. (New Hampshire, 1815.) New England, 1847-1858. 
Maquoketa, 1858-1859, Williamsburg, 1865-1869. Other short 
pastorates. Returned to New Hampshire and died where born, April, 
1905. 

Paul, Benj. F. Tipton, Elma, 1888-1889. 

Paulu, Anton. (Bohemia, 1845.) Soldier, Merchant, Assistant to Doctor 
Clark at Prague, Missionary in Illinois, Nebraska, Vining and Luzerne, 
1893-. 



400 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Paxton, Robt. F. Correctionville, Sloan, Earlville and Almoral, 1898- 

1903. 
Payne, Wm. B. Orient, Victor, 1891-1897. Later in Nebraska and 

Kansas. 
Pease, Frank W. Native of Maine. Central City, 1902-1907. Postville, 

1907-. 
Pedersen, Jans H. (Jutland, 1866.) New Jersey and Maine. Britt, 

Wesley and Flatten, 1903-1908. 
Peebles, Geo. (Scotland, 1849.) Shenandoah, 1892-1899. Returned 

to Illinois. Later in California. 
Peet, Josiah W. (Enosburg, Vt., 1808.) Fontanelle and Nevin, 1867-1885. 

Died, April, 1892. 
Peet, Stephen D. Cresco, 1866-1867. 
Pell, Thos. (Manchester, England, 1825.) Sibley, 1881-1883. Ocheye- 

dan, 1889-1891. Died in Ohio, Aug., 1896. 
Penfield, Homer. Native of New York. Knoxville, Quincy, Nevin, 

1856-1858. 
Penfield, S. Riceville and Wentworth, 1877-1879. 

Penniman, Henry M. Keokuk, 1891-1895. Later Professor Berea Col. 
Penwell, W. W. New York, Wayne Co., 1872-1874. 
Perkins, Chas. E. (Indiana, 1853.) Pastorates in New York and Massa- 
chusetts. Iowa City, 1892-1896, Keosauqua, 1896-1911. 
Perkins, Geo. G. (Mass., 1833.) Ames, Avoca, Oakland, Spencer. 1875- 

1890. Some supply work after that. Before coming to Iowa labored 

in Massachusetts and Missouri. 
Perry, Frank S. Hartwick, 1892-1893. Big Rock and Blencoe, 1904-1908. 
Peterson, Chas. W. (Sweden, 1862.) Centerville, 1898-1905. Later 

in Pennsylvania. 
Pettigrew, Nina D. Red Oak South, 1894-1895. Later in Nebraska 

and Washington. 
Phillip, W. L. College Springs, 1876-1878. 
Pickett, Joseph W. (Andover, Ohio, 1832.) Mount Pleasant, 1863-1869. 

H. M. Supt., 1869-1878. See Chapter X. 
Pierce, Lucius M. (Massachusetts, 1861.) Golden, Riceville, Reinbeck, 

Rockford, Sioux City Mayflower, 1888-1907, Primghar, 1907-. 
Pierce, Wm. Bentonsport, 1856-1858. 
Pinch, Pearse. (England, 1850.) Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Texas, 

Louisiana, Kansas, Missouri and Illinois. Fairfield 1904-1908. 

Huron, South Dakota, 1910-. 
Pinkerton, David. (New Hampshire, 1813.) Wisconsin and Kansas. Green 

Castle, Iowa, 1868-1870. Residing Grinnell, 1877-1884. Died, De- 
cember, 1886. 



WHO'S WHO 401 

Pinkerton, Henry M. Native of Wisconsin. Alton, Cass, 1902-1905. 
Pinkerton, Wm. B. Born, Wisconsin, August, 1861. Mitchell, Waverly, 

Rock Rapids, Newell, 1889-1903. Later Minnesota and Oregon. 
Pipes, Abner M. Sioux City Pilgrim, 1891-1892, Nora Springs, 1897- 

1898. 
Pitzer, Howland H. Toledo, 1908-1909. 
Piatt, M. Fayette. (Connecticut, 1822.) Pacific Junction, 1866-1874. 

Later and in Kansas and California. Died, July, 1898. 
Plasted, Wm. Shenandoah, 1878-1880. 
Poague, Geo. G. (Ohio, 1809.) Wittemberg, 1855-1867. Logan, 1870- 

1878. Died, January, 1896. 
Pollard, Sam'l W. (Turkey, 1856.) Postville, 1884-1896. Returned 

to Wisconsin. Later South Dakota. 
Porter, Giles M. (Farmington, Connecticut, 1815.) Residence Garna- 

villo, 1857-1888. Pastor 1863-1868. Died, February, 1901. 
Porter, Henry W. Des Moines Union, 1904-1910. 
Porter, T. Arthur. Maquoketa, 1892-1894. 
Potter, L. Eugene. Elma, Toledo, 1894-1900. Percival, 1902-1904. 

Council Bluffs People's Church, 1908-1908. 
Pottle,, Wm. A. (Davenport, 1853.) M. E. Minister, 1884-1892. Sioux 

City Pilgrim, Moville, Onawa, New Hampton, 1897-1903. Died at 

New Hampton, April, 1903. 
Potwin, W. S. (New York, 1831.) Fayette, Monona, Quasqueton, 

Gatesville, 1872-1887. Residence Independence. 
Povey, Jesse. Perry, 1903-1908. Returned to Michigan. 
Prentiss, J. H. Native of New York. Joliet, 111., 1835-1839, Lyons, 

1839-1841. Returned to New York. 
Preston, Bryant C. (Kansas, 1865.) Whitewater, Wisconsin, Osage, 

Muscatine, 1899-1910. Spokane, Washington, 1910-. 
Preston, Elmer E. Oakland, 1892-1893. 

Preston, Edward T. Residence near Baxter, 1868-1903. Supplied occa- 
sionally. Died, 1903. 
Preston, Hart L. Sioux City Mayflower, Knoxv'.lle, 1897-1904. Later 

in Washington. 
Price, Thos. M. Iowa Falls, 1895-1903. Highland, Cal., 1903-. 
Prior, Arthur E. (Eng'and, 1870.) Pastorates ; n M ch'-an. Newell, 

1909, Pugh, Elverda, Des Moines Mor ah, 1899-1903. 
Purdue, Roland W. Cheroke?, L- Mars, 1905-1908. Returned to V\ no $ 

Died, February, 1908. 
Putnam, Glenn H. Humeston, 1903-1910. Went .nto bus ness. 
Pyner, Alfred. Fairfax, 1890-1893. 
Quarder, Paul R. Minden, 1894-1896. 

27 



402 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Radford, Walter. Magnolia, 1879-1881, Eagle Grove, 1894-1896. 

Rainier, Martin T. Eagle Grove, Creston Pilgrim, Kingsley, 1883-1890. 

Ralph, Philip H. Came to Iowa from Wisconsin. Reinbeck, 1908-1909, 
California 1909-. 

Ramsey, Wm. G. Born in Ireland. Winthrop, 1902-1908, Eldora, 1908-. 

Ransom, Geo. R. Born in Connecticut. Waverly, Webster City, 1870- 
1881. Died, March, 1900. 

Rawson, Griggs H. Orchard, Niles, Stillwater, 1907-1909, Bear Grove, 
1909-. 

Reed, A. T. (Ohio, February, 1845.) Cedar Rapids, 1880-1881. Evan- 
gelist in N. E. and Ohio. Died, March, 1910. 

Reed, Ernest E. Lamoille, West Burlington, 1897-1902. 

Reed, Julius A. (Connecticut, 1809.) Fairfield, 1840-1844, Agt. H. M. 
Socy., 1845-1857, Agt. and Treas. Col., 1857-1862. Supt. of Southern 
Iowa, 1862-1869. Died, August, 1890. Chapter III. 

Reed, Marian D. (Ohio, 1860.) Silver Creek, Lakeview, Exira, Glen- 
wood, Humboldt, Eldon, 1890-1908. Oklahoma, 1908- 

Reed, Thos. J. Iowa Falls, Nashua, 1881-1885. 

Remington, Eliza M. Woden, 1908-1909- 

Resner, Andrew K. Davenport German, 1889-1892. 

Reuth, Jacob. (Switzerland, 1838.) Muscatine, Davenport, Sherrill, 
Lansing Ridge, 1869-1889. Died, 1889. 

Reynolds, Geo. W. Stuart, Osage, 1880-1887. Returned to New Eng- 
land. 

Rhodes, Benj. J. (Illinois, 1878.) Lakeview, Blairsburg, Bear Grove, 
1902-1909, Oakland, 1909-. 

Rhys, Thos. D. Williamsburg Welsh, 1902-1904. 

Rice, Albert R. Born in Iowa. Education and service mostly in Wiscon- 
sin. Waverly, 1908-. 

Rice, G. G. (Vermont, 1819.) Fairfield, 1850-1851. Council Bluffs, 
1851-1857. Onawa, 1857-1859. See Chapter VI. 

Rice, Othello V. Storm Lake, Knoxville, 1892-1894. 

Rice, W. H. Waverly, 1871-1872. 

Richards, Jacob P. Keosauqua, 1868-1871. Parkersburg, 1883-1883. 

Richardson, C. J. Rockwell, 1878-1880. 

Richardson, H. J. (Illinois, 1850.) Edgewood, Quasqueton, 1902-1906. 

Ricker, A. W. Jewell, Ellsworth and Lincoln, 1909-. 

Rindell, Gilbert. (New York, 1840.) In Civil War, Minnesota, 1874- 
1875; Toledo; 1875-1877. Died, 1905. 

Ripley, Erastus. (Connecticut, 1815.) Iowa Band. Bentonsport, 1844- 
1848, Iowa Col., 1848-1859. Returned to Connecticut. Died, Feb- 
ruary, 1870. See Chapters IV and X. 



WHO'S WHO 403 

Risser, Arthur. Iowa Col., Franklin, 1886-1889. Later in Minnesota and 
Wisconsin. 

Ritchie, Geo. Big Rock, Cass, 1873-1882. 

Roberts, James F. Exira, 1889-1892. Later in Oklahoma. 

Robbins, Alden B. (Salem, Mass., 1817.) Muscatine, 1843-1896. 
Died, December 27, 1896. See Chapters IV and XII. 

Robbins, Horace H. (Muscatine, 1846.) Iowa Col., Alden, Postville, 
1874-1880. Treas. I. C, 1887-1896. 

Robert, Joseph T. Shenandoah, Victor, 1892-1894. Salem, 1903-1905. 

Roberts, Bennett. (Connecticut, 1800.) Ohio six years. Marion, Brigh- 
ton, Clay, Traer, 1846-1876. Died at Toledo, February, 1880. See 
Chapter XII. 

Roberts, Harri P. Old Man's Creek, 1895-1902. 

Roberts, Hiram P. Council Bluffs, 1868-1871. 

Roberts, John. Gomer, 1906-. 

Roberts, O. Jones. (Wales, 1873.) Williamsburg, 1909-1910. Mon- 
tana, 1910-. 

Roberts, Robert E. Williamsburg, Gomer, 1882-1886, Owen's Grove, 
1892-1896, Centerdale, 1905-1906. 

Robertson, Albert A. Rockwell, Oakland, 1903-1909. Later in Nebraska. 

Robinson, Eugene H. Clay, 1908-1909. 

Robson, Wm. H. Toledo, 1909-1910. 

Rockwell, J. H. Eddyville, 1878-1880. 

Rogan, D. H. Newton, 1871-1874. 

Rogers, Alonzo. (Michigan, 1844.) Glen wood, 1877-1880. Deaf and 
Dumb Aslyum, 1880-1883, Dunlap, 1883-1887. Later in Nebraska, 
Oregon and Washington. Died, July, 1901. 

Rogers, Chas. H. (Wisconsin, 1848.) Lansing, 1877-1878. Mason 
City, 1897-1905, Plymouth, Lincoln, Nebraska, 1905-. 

Rogers, Osgood W. (Maine, 1840.) Mount Pleasant, 1883-1900. Okla- 
homa, 1900-. 

Rogers, Samuel J. (New Hampshire, 1832.) Cedar Rapids, 1882-1883. 
Later in Minnesota. Died, May, 1910. 

Rollins, Geo. S. (New Hampshire, 1864.) Davenport Edwards, 1894- 
1903. Later in Minnesota and Massachusetts. 

Rollins, Walter H. (Massachusetts, 1869.) Massachusetts, 1898-1906. 
Waterloo, 1906-. 

Rose, Wm. F. Cherokee, 1870-1875. Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois, 
South Dakota. Died, February, 1898. 

Rosenberger, Henry C. Cleveland, Mitchell ville, Perry Independence, 
Des Moines Greenwood, Bondurant and Linn Grove, 1888-1910. 

Rosewarne, J. V. MitcheUville, Milford, 1903-1906. 



404 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Ross, John A. Marion, 1864-1872. Returned to New England. 

Rouse, L. C. Resided at Grinnell without charge, 1861-1867. Died in 

1867. 
Rowe, Jas. (England, 1854.) Victor, Genoa Bluffs, Elma, Chester 

Center, 1888-1900. Later in Wisconsin. 
Rowley, Loveland T. (New York, 1822.) Rome, Hickory Grove, Trenton, 

Crawfordsville, Wayne, Hillsboro, Salem, Danville, 1871-1895. Died, 

October, 1899. 
Rowley, Milton. Albia, Eddyville, 1870-1872. 
Ruhl, Levi W. (Pennsylvania, 1837.) Iowa in 1862. Hartwick, 1888- 

1889. Died, May, 1905. 
Russell, Isaac. Buffalo Grove, Bowens Prairie, Monticello, 1857-1865. 
Sabin, Joel G. (New York, 1820.) New York, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, 

Harlan, Mitchellville, 1879-1889. Died, 1897. 
Sabin, L. P. Magnolia, 1881-1883. 
Safford, Albert W. (Illinois, 1844.) Kansas, Utah, Wisconsin, Des 

Moines Pilgrim, 1884-1887. Later in Illinois. 
Safford, John. Ohio, Wisconsin. Grinnell, 1885-1888. Crawfordsville, 

Indiana, 1888-1891. Died in 1891. 
Sallenbach, Henry. Lansing Ridge, Muscatine German, 1867-1875. 
Salter, Ernest J. B. (London, 1872.) "Followed the Sea." Stenographer 

in Boston. Began with the Evangelical Association. Madison Co. 

Churches, Quasqueton, Peterson, Manson, 1895-1904, Canada, 1904. 
Salter, Wm. One of the Band. See Chapters IV and XV. 
Samson, Caleb. Gomer, 1884-1886. 
Sands, John D. (England, 1815.) Keosauqua, Quincy, Belmond, 1855- 

1908. Died, March 7, 1909. See Chapter IX. 
Sands, W. D. Keosauqua, 1854r-1855. 

Sargent, Geo. W. (New Hampshire, 1833.) New Hampshire, Massa- 
chusetts, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, 1859-1890. Preston, 

Bellevue, Dubuque North Church, 1890-1897. Died, January, 1905. 
Sattler, Ferdinand. Avoca German, 1904-1909. 
Sauerman, Wm. E. (Iowa, 1857.) Hartwick, Olds and Hickory Grove, 

Cincinnati, Belknap, Stacyville, Blencoe, Rodney, Washta, 1889-1910, 

Garner, 1910-. 
Savage, D. F. Stacyville, 1863-1864. Returned to New England. 
Sawyer, Rufus M. (Maine, 1820.) Iowa City, Anamosa, Le Mars, 

1869-1873. Died in 1873. 
Scarritt, Wm. R. Fayette, Marshalltown, 1884-1890. 
Schearer, John. Muscatine and SherrilFs Mound German, 1865-1869. 
Scherff, Frank C. F. Muscatine and Minden German, 1901-1906. 
Schmidt, Philip. Davenport German, 1899-1901. 



WHO'S WHO 405 

Schneider, Jacob. Pine Creek, 1870-1871, Lansing Ridge, 1889-1894. 

Schumaker, Wm. W. Creston Pilgrim, 1902-1903. 

Schwimley, Wm. A. Native of Iowa. Wyoming, Nebraska, Illinois, 

Anita, Shenandoah, Sibley, 1902-1910. 
Scott, Jas. W. Lamoille, 1891-1895. 
Scottford, Henry C. (Michigan, 1849.) Kansas, Michigan, Connecticut, 

Illinois, Nashua, 1896-1898. Illinois, 1898-. 
Scull, Jas. H. (Pennsylvania, 1850.) M. P. 1873-1904. Popejoy, 

Woden, Orient, 1904-1909. 
Seccombe, Chas. H. (Minnesota, 1868.) Sibley, Ames, Waterloo, 1896- 

1906. Later California. 
Seccombe, Sam'l H. Born in Minnesota. Davenport Beth., 1901-1904. 
Sedgwick, Arthur H. Nashua, Belle Plaine, 1891-1900. Returned to 

N. E. 
Seeley, Wm. Gait, Westfield, 1898-1903. Ogden, Centerdale, 1906-1909. 

Went into medical practice. 
Seil, Herman. Wilton Church and College, 1901-1904. Later Pres. 

Redfield Col. 
Sexton, Wm. C. (New York, 1832.) Lewis, 1867-1869. New Jersey, 

Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, 1871-1889. Died, August, 1908. 
Sharp, J. B. Mount Pleasant, Glenwood, 1878-1882. 
Sharpley, Geo. H. Mitchell vi lie, Chester Center, 1883-1888. 
Shatto, Chas. R. (Iowa, 1868.) West Burlington, Danville, Shenandoah, 

Sioux City, New Hampton, 1894-1906. Prof., Leander Clark Col., 

1907-. 
Sheldon, Chas. F. (Wisconsin, 1853.) Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, 

Danville, 1905-1909. La Harpe, Illinois, 1909-. 
Shepherd, Sam'l. (Canada, 1850.) Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Maquo- 

keta, 1895-1904. Died in office, April, 1904. 
Sherman, Eugene L. (New York, 1841.) Prairie City, 1874-1877, 

Harlan, Sibley, Sioux City Mayflower, Sloan, 1881-1890. Later 

Illinois and Nebraska. Died, May, 1896. 
Short, Wallace M. (Iowa, 1866.) Wisconsin, Missouri. In Iowa, 

Sioux City First, 19 10-. 
Shull, Gilbert L. (New York, 1853.) Harlan, Eagle Grove, Baxter, 

1890-1898. Later Montana and Idaho. 
Shorey, H. Allen. Lyons, 1885-1887. 
Shultz, Jacob. Chester Center, Parkersburg, 1895-1899. 
Simonds, W. D. Iowa Falls, 1895-1898. 
Simpson, Sam'l. Washta, Garner, 1893-1895. 
Sinclair, Carl E. De Witt, Algona, 1893-1898. 
Sinden, Archibald S. Marshalltown, Nashua, 1902-1910. Reinbeck, 1910-. 



406 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Single, John. (Germany, 1857.) Lansing Ridge, SherrttTs Mound, 

Avoca German, 1883-1897. Later South Dakota. 
Sinnett, Chas. N. Correctionville, Harlan, Oakland, 1882-1888. 
Skeels, Henry M. (New York, 1841.) Iowa Evangelist, 1886-1891. 

Pastor in Colorado, 1891-. 
Skiles, Jas. H. (Iowa, 1857.) Riceville, Nevinville, Lewis, Avoca, 

Farragut, Glenwood, 1882-1909, Eldon, 1909-. 
Skinner, David E. (Pennsylvania, 1853.) Pastor and Genl. Miss'y, 

1884-1903, serving Aurelia, Rockwell, Moville, Kingsley, Primghar, 

Owen's Grove, Nora Springs, etc. Moved to California, 1903. 
Skinner, Thos. (New York, 1819.) Toledo, Indiantown, Webster City, 

Forreston, New Hampton, Chickasaw, Forest City, Fayette, Lima, 

etc. Always at the front. 
Slater, Chas. (Oxford, England, 1839.) Prim. Methodist. Congrega- 
tional pastorates England, Illinois, Prairie City, 1874-1875. Died, 

October, 1901. 
Sloan, Sam'l P. (Ohio, 1829.) Winnebago, Illinois. Army service. 

McGregor, 1860-1870. Died, October, 1870. 
Slocum, G. M. D. (New York, 1845.) Gilman, Rockford, Toledo, 

1884-1899. Returned to New York. 
Sly, M. Hambleton. Parkersburg, 1882-1882. 
Slyfield, Fred A. Thompson, Orchard, Niles, Stillwater, Quasqueton, 

1896-1902. 
Smalley, Albert L. (New York, 1844.) Ottumwa, 1888-1890. Later, 

in Chicago and Ohio. Died, 1907. 
Smith, A. J. R. Exira, 1872-1873. 
Smith, Elijah P. (Ohio, 1825.) Wayne, Danville, Wilton, Durant, 1855- 

1884. Died, 1899. 
Smith, Frank G. (Illinois, 1864.) One of three Brothers in Congrega- 
tional pastorates. Peoria, 1898-1900. Dubuque, 1900-1903. Warren 

Ave., Chicago, 1903- 
Smith, Franklin. (Ohio, 1862.) Nebraska, 1893-1899. Olds, Kellogg, 

1905-1909. Central City, 1909-. 
Smith, Geo. Big Rock, 1867-1871. 
Smith, Geo. H. Washta, Aurelia, 1889-1895. 

Smith, Le Grand. Red Oak, Newton, 1897-1906, Bellevue, O., 1906-. 
Smith, Jas. M. Sabula, Monona, 1867-1871. 
Smith, M. Wilton, 1872-1874. 
Smith, Otterbein O. (Illinois, 1858.) Traer, 1895-1899. S. S. Supt., 

1899-1905. Council Bluffs, 1905-. 
Smith, Wm. J. (New York, 1813.) Osage, Waukon, Alden, Prairie City, 

Sioux Rapids, 1858-1881. Died, 1890. 



WHO'S WHO 407 

Smith, Wm. R. (Pennsylvania, 1837.) Orchard, Golden, Silver Creek, 
Keck, Oto, 1892-1897. Died, December, 1905. 

Smock, W. B. Exira, 1874-1875. 

Snowden, Clifford. Harlan, Fairfield, 1897-1900. Later Chicago and 
Portland, Me. 

Snowden, Jas. E. (Ohio, August, 1834.) Oskaloosa, Storm Lake, Le 
Mars, Fayette, Cedar Falls, 1871-1910. Emeritus Cedar Falls Church, 
1910-. See Chapter X. 

Solandt, Andrew P. (Canada, 1857.) Canada, Vermont, Illinois, Emmets- 
burg, Alton, 1899-1902. Later Prof. Fairmont College, Kans. 

Southworth, E. B. Cresco, Sheldon, 1872-1883. Died, 1907. 

Spaulding, Benj . A. One of the Band. See Chapters IV and IX. 

Spell, Wm. (England, 1841.) Buffalo Grove, Troy Mills, Central City, 
Greenwood, Bancroft, 1865-1888. 

Spelman, Henry D. (Michigan, 1865.) Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, 
Fairfield, 1900-1905; Michigan, 1905-1910; Atlantic, 1910-. 

Spencer, David B. Des Moines Greenwood, 1899-1901. 

Spencer, G. M. Emmetsburg, 1880-1884. 

Spencer, Judson D. Nashua, Waverly, 1871-1874. 

Stewart, J. P. See Chapter II. 

Spiker, Wm. D. Shell Rock, Winthrop, 1898-1902; Kingsley, 1907-. 

Stafford, Burnett T. Manchester, 1880-1882. 

Stapleton, Robt. Belle Plaine, 1889-1895. Union, 1896-1897. Returned 
to Michigan. 

Starbuck, Chas. C. Wittemberg, 1873-1874. 

Stark, C. W. Genoa Bluffs, 1893-1900. Returned to Wisconsin. 

Stanton, Jay B. Cromwell, 1901-1904. 

Staunton, Benj. Mount Pleasant, 1906-1909. 

Steele, Joseph. Berwick, Bondurant, Linn Grove, Ankeney, Crocker, 
1892-1902. 

St. Clair, Peter. Humboldt, 1882-1884. 

Steele, John T. Dickens, Little Rock, Gowrie, 1907-1910. 

Stiener, Edw. A. (Austria.) Pastorates Minnesota and Ohio. Prof. 
Iowa Col., 1903-. 

Sterling, Geo. (Connecticut, 1842.) Stacyville, Burr Oak, 1874-1876. 
Died, November, 1901. 

Stein, Henry W. Grandview, 1902-1903. 

Stevens, Almon O. (Pennsylvania, 1868.) Pastorates Minnesota, Cali- 
fornia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Anamosa, 1904r-1905. 

Stevenson, John O. (Scotland, 1841.) Pastorates in Connecticut, Shen- 
andoah, 1879-1886. Waterloo, 1886-1898. See Chapter XV. 

Stewart, Wm. R. Anamosa, Britt, 1891-1897. Later in Illinois. 



408 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Stewart, J. P. See Chapter II. 

Stiles, Edmund R. (Ohio, 1835.) Manchester, 1880-1887. Returned 

to Michigan. Died, January, 1881. 
Stillman, Harry W. Stuart, 1905-1906. 

Stimson, Martin L. (Vermont, 1856.) Shansi Missions, 1881-1889. Micro- 
nesia, 1898-1908. Elkader, 1909-1911. 
St. John, Benj. (New York, 1848.) In Iowa from Boyhood. Iowa 

Col., Eldon, Britt, Des Moines North Park, 1880-1898. Genl. Miss'y, 

1898-1899, Fayette, 1899-1904. California, 1904-. 
Stoddard, John C. Peterson, Sibley, Primghar, Britt, Ogden, Garden 

Prairie, Kelley, Earlville and Almoral, 1886-1906. Later in Illinois. 
Stoops, J. D. (Delaware, 1873.) East Hampton, Mass. Chair Psy- 
chology Iowa Col., 1904-. 
Storrs, S. D. Glen wood, 1858-1S59. Later in Kansas. 
Stouffer, David G. Farragul, 1888-1891. 
Strain, Horace L. (Illinois, 1869.) Iowa City, 1905-1908. Died, March, 

1909. 
Strohecker, John H. Davenport German, 1903-1904. 
Strong, John C. (Connecticut, 1818.) Miss'y to Indians, 1846-1849. 

Illinois and Massachusetts, 1849-1853, Lyons and Bradford, 1854- 

1859. Later in Minnesota and Washington. Died, December, 1896. 
Stuart, Robt. (New Hampshire, 1814.) Cascade, 1847-1852, Illinois, 

1852-1860, Montour, Green Mountain, 1861-1870. Died, June, 1884.. 
Stump, G. Ellsworth. Moville, Aurelia, 1896-1901. 
St urges, Albert. (Ohio, 1819.) Principal Denmark Academy, 1845-1847. 

Miss'y of American Board, 1852-1885. Died, 1887. 
Sturtevant, Julian M. (Illinois, 1834.) Earlier pastorates in Missouri, 

New York and Chicago and Denver. Grinnell, 1877-1884. Later 

Cleveland, Ohio, Galesburg, Aurora and Ravenswood, Illinois, 1890- 

1902. 
Suckow, Wm. J. Hawarden, 1889-1895, Le Mars, 1894-1896, Hawarden, 

Algona, Fort Dodge, Manchester, 1896-1907. Agt. Iowa Col., 1907- 

1910; Davenport, 1910-. 
Swift, Eliphalet Y. (Vermont, 1815.) Denmark, 1868-1882. Died, 

June, 1892. 
Swift, N. B. Glasgow and Rome, 1868-1869. 
Taggart, Chas. E. (Michigan, 1858.) Rockford, 1891-1896. Returned 

to Michigan. 
Taintor, Jesse F. (Wisconsin, 1851.) Decorah, De Witt, 1878-1884. 

At Rochester, Minnesota, 1886-1903. Professor at Ripon, 1905. 
Talbot, Benj. In service of Deaf and Dumb Asylum, Iowa City and 

Council Bluffs, 1866-1880. Later similar service in Ohio. 



WHO'S WHO 409 

Tangeman, Gottlobb D. (Ohio, 1870.) Danville, 1899-1903. 
Tanner, Allen A. (Illinois, 1868.) Waterloo, 1898-1902. Later in Illi- 
nois and Colorado. 
Taylor, Chas. B. Orient, 1889-1891. 
Taylor, Chauncey. See Chapters VII and X. 
Taylor, Elmer C. Percival, 1868-1870. Labored mostly in Nebraska. 

Died, April, 1890. 
Taylor, Glenn A. (Denmark, 1860.) Stuart, Spencer, Emmetsburg, 

1890-1904. Farming, 1904-. 
Taylor, Herbert J. Garden Prairie, 1909-. 
Taylor, Jas. W. Aurelia, 1887-1890. 
Teele, Edwin. Ministry mostly in Minnesota, Riceville, 1863-1865. 

Died, November, 1873. 
Tegnell, G. N. Ottumwa Swedish, 1904-1906. 
Tenney, H. Melville. (Vermont, 1850.) Connecticut, Ohio, Grinnell, 

1889-1891, San Jos6, 1891-1903, Sec. A. B. C. F. M., 1903-. 
Tenney, Thos. See Chapters VII and X. 
Teuber, Adolph. Clay and Franklin, 1893-1894. 
Thain, Alex. Tabor, 1894-1898. Returned to Illinois to take charge 

of The Advance. Later pastorates in Wisconsin and Illinois. 
Thatcher, Geo. Born, Connecticut, 1817. Died in Connecticut, De- 
cember, 1878. See Chapter X. 
Thiel, Peter J. Grandview, New Hampton, 1900- 1904, Minden, 1907-. 
Thing, M. J. P. (Maine, 1850.) Nebraska, 1884-1895. Illinois, 1895- 

1898, Iowa : Stacyville, Edgewood, 1898-1907, Golden, 1907-. 
Thomas, C. N. West Burlington, 1893-1895. 
Thomas, David. Beacon, 1870-1872. Gomer, 1873-1875. 
Thomas O. A. Riceville, 1879-1882. 
Thomas, Owen. (Ohio, 1865.) Hiteman, Gomer, 1895-1904. Returned 

to Pennsylvania. 
Thomas, Richard H. Reinbeck, 1881-1895. 
Thomas, W. Henry. (Wales, 1834.) Cleveland, Iowa, 1879-1891, 1884- 

1885. Died, October, 1898. 
Thomlinson, W. Howard. (Canada, 1875.) Terrill, Preston, etc., 1902- 

1908, Muscatine Milford, 1908. 
Thompson, A. W. Tipton, Exira, 1880-1885. 
Thompson, Mart M. Clay, Glenwood, 1879-1883. 
Thompson, Thos. (England, 1843.) England, 16 years. Wisconsin, 

South Dakota, Larchwood, 1908-. 
Thompson, Wm. A. Ordained Denmark, 1843. Troy Pres., 1843-1845, 

Fairfield, 1845-1850. Drowned May, 1852. 
Thompson, Geo. O. Valley Junction, 1908-1909. 



410 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Thomson, James. (Scotland, 1858.) Kansas, Missouri, New Yoik, 

Council Bluffs, 1902-1905, Hampton, 1905-. 
Thrush, John O. (West Virginia, 1861.) Postville, 1888-1890. Spencer, 

1891-1899. Webster City, 1899-1909, Spencer, 1910- 
Tibbetts, Dallas D. (Indiana, 1844.) Teacher Denmark, 1878-1879, 

Cromwell, Salem, Ogden, Miles, Central City, Eldon, 1882-1899. 

Later residence Fairfield. 
Tillitt, Barton C. (Pennsylvania, 1847.) Evangelist and pastor Garden 

Prairie, Baxter, Bondurant, etc., 1882-1904. Later in Colorado. Died, 

July, 1908. 
Tingle, Geo. Rodney, Jewell, Gilbert, Bondurant, Moville, 1893-1903. 

Later in Missouri. 
Tingley, Marshall. (New York, 1834.) Michigan, Glenwood, 1860- 

1861, Sioux City, 1861-1869. Died, February, 1879. 
Todd, John. (Pennsylvania, 1818.) Ohio, Tabor, 1850-1883. Emeritus, 

1883-1888. Died, January 31, 1888. 
Todd, Quintus C. (Ohio, 1844.) Tabor Col., Corning, 1879-1880, Exira, 

Center Point, Big Rock, Britt, 1887-1894. 
Todd, Wm. E. Creston Pilgrim, 1897-1899. 
Toft, J. S. Exira, 1870-1872. 
Tomes, Isaac N. Eddyville, Strawberry Point, Big Rock, Eagle Grove, 

1882-1888. 
Toms, Joseph. (England, 1878.) Steamboat Rock, Garner, New Hamp- 
ton, 1906-1910, Cedar Rapids Bethany, 1910-1911, Lake Linden, 

Mich., 1911-. 
Tompkins, Geo. T. (New Jersey, 1833.) Magnolia, 1873-1878. Later 

Colorado and California. Died, March, 1884. 
Torgeson, Cecilious O. Britt and Wesley Scandinavian. 1890-1895. 
Towle, Chas. E. (New Hampshire, 1837.) Monticello, 1882-1886, 

Supt. Sunday School work, 1886-1899. Died February 22, 1899. 
Tucker, Stillman. Spring Grove, 1855-1856. Died in office, 1856. 
Turner, Asa. (Massachusetts, 1799.) Quincy, Illinois, 1830-1838. 

Denmark, 1838-1868. Died, June 11, 1886. See Chapters III and XL 
Turner, Edwin B. Iowa Band. (Massachusetts, Oct. 2, 1812.) Illinois 

Col., Cascade, Colesburg, Yankee Settlement, 1843-1854, Morris, Illi- 
nois, 1855-1864, Supt. in Missouri, 1864-1876. Died, July 6, 1895. 
Turner, John M. (Ohio, 1863.) Castana, Sergeant Bluffs, Bellevue, 

Green Island, Castana again, Rodney, 1890-1900, Avoca, 1907-1909, 

Milford, 1909-. 
Turner, Wm. J. Shenandoah, 1908-. 
Tuttle, Henry W. (New York, 1861.) Manchester, 1889-1905, State 

S. S. Supt., 1905-. 



WHO'S WHO 411 

Tuttle, Warren W. (Iowa, 1881.) Iowa Col., Chapin, 1907-1908, Wau- 

coma, 1908-1910. 
Tyrell, F. M. (Indiana, 1850.) Colesburg, Osterdock, Bethel, 1904-1906, 

Runnells, 1908-1908. Died, August, 1908. 
Uhlf elder, Siegmond. Sherrill's Mound, 1858-1861. 
Underwood, H. B. Algona, 1873-1875. Died in office, 1875. 
Upton, John R. (New Hampshire, 1819.) Durango, Inland, Buckingham, 

Monona, 1851-1869, Northwestern Iowa, Lakeville, Spirit Lake, 

etc., 1869-1883. Sibley without charge, 1883-1888. Died, 1898, in 

California. 
Van Antwerp, John D. (New York, 1820.) New York and Illinois, 

De Witt, 1857-1871. Later in Michigan. Died, 1902. 
Van Auken, C. H. (Ohio, 1878.) Pastorates in Ohio, Sioux Rapids, 

1910-. 
Van Horn, Francis J. Des Moines Plymouth, 1899-1903. Later Worces- 
ter, Mass., and Seattle, Washington. 
Van Swearingen, 0. M. Mitchell, 1903-1907. Strawberry Point, 1907-. 
Van Vliet, Adrian. Dubuque German, 1851-1853. 
Van Valkenburgh, H. C. (Ohio, 1875.) Illinois, 1902-1904, Nora Springs, 

1904-1907. Later Nebraska. 
Van Wagner, Allen J. Creston, 1887-1900. Later in Missouri. 
Vietz, Christian. Muscatine, 1852-1860. Sherrill's Mound, 1862-1868. 
Vittum, Edmund M. (New Hampshire, 1855.) Cedar Rapids, 1888- 

1891, Grinnell, 1891-1906. Later Pres. Fargo Col. 
Vogler, Henry. Sherrill's Mound, 1862-1868. 
Votaw, Elihu H. (Ohio, 1836.) Ohio, Kansas, Minnesota, Illinois, 

Hawarden, Anita, Exira, 1895-1901. Died, 1902. 
Wadham, Jonathan. (New York, 1846.) Belle Plaine, Charles City, 

Parkersburg, 1873-1878. Later, Massachusetts and Connecticut. 
Wadleigh, T. B. Winthrop, 1908-1910. 
Wadsworth, T. A. McGregor, 1858-1859. 
Wakeman, Montgomery M. Farmersburg, 1865-1873. 
Walden, Edward A. Ottumwa Swedish, 1898-1901. 
Walsh, Chas. E. Arion, 1909-. 

Walker, Theo. C. Keosauqua, 1886-1890, Sioux Rapids, 1892-1896. 
Ward, John A. Toledo, Prof. Leander Clark Col., 1899-1903. 
Ward, John R. Hampton, 1900-1901. 
Warkenstein, Emil F. Sherrill's Mound, New Hampton and Fort Atkinson 

German, 1905-1908. 
Warner, Chas. C. (Illinois, 1857.) Illinois, Colorado, Monticello, Eldora, 

1898-1909. Later Minnesota. 
Warner, Hiram G. Lyons, 1847-1847. 



412 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Warren, Jasper C. Elma, 1902-1905. 

Washington, Alonzo G. Nevinville, Blencoe, Farnhamville, 1895-1903. 

Later in Minnesota. 
Waterman, Wm. A. (Massachusetts, 1840.) Missouri, Marion, 1875- 

1886. Later Michigan and Illinois. 
Waters, Simeon. Mount Pleasant, 1847-1854. 
Watson, James J. Pastorates in Illinois. Shell Rock, 1908-. 
Watt, Richard. Aurelia, 1902-1904. 
Watt, Wm. J. Doon, 1903-1905. 
Weatherly, Arthur L. Milford, 1893-1895. 
Webber, Berthold L. Aurelia, Milford, Gowrie, 1895-1899. 
Webber, Edwin E. (England, 1835.) 'Agency, Glasgow, Durant, Central 

City, 1866-1873; Elliott, Reinbeck, 1885-1888, Kingsley, 1899-1902. 

Residence Reinbeck, 1905-. 
Wehrhan, Nelson W. Student Iowa Col., Chapin, Hartwick, 1902-1906. 

Fort Dodge, 1909-. 
Weidman, Peter. Pine Creek, Grove Hill, Lansing Ridge, 1864-1882. 

Later in Nebraska. 
Wells, Ashbel S. (Vermont, 1798.) Indiana and Michigan. Residence 

Fairfield, 1859-1882. Died, October, 1882. 
Wells, Jas. D. (Michigan, 1849.) Michigan and Illinois. Webster City, 

Ames, Wilton, Shell Rock, 1882-1894. Died, 1899. 
Wells, P. B. (Michigan, 1873.) Madison Co. First, Grand River, Fellow- 
ship, 1909-. 
Wells, Spencer R. (New York, 1838.) Lost arm at Vicksburg. A. B. C. 

F. M., 1869-1881, Eagle Grove, 1886-1886. Died, 1886. 
Welles, Clayton. Keokuk, Waterloo, 1872-1883. Returned to New Eng- 
land. 
West, Pearley B. Born in 1843. Franklin, 1873-1875, Onawa, Sibley, 

Little Rock, Lakeview, Magnolia, 1891-1909. Later on farm in South 

Dakota. 
West, Lester L. (Wisconsin, 1851.) Tabor Col., Fort Dodge, 1878-1889. 

Winona, 1889-1901; Norwich, Connecticut, 1903-1909; Everett, Wash., 

1909-. 
Westlake, C. M. (Pennsylvania, 1856.) M. E. and Congl. pastorates 

east and west. In business also in the west. Hawarden, 1907-1908, 

Sheldon, 1908-. 
Westvelt, W. A. Oskaloosa, 1854-1860, Crawfordsville, 1851-1854 and 

1862-1864. 
Wheeler, Edward F. Newell, 1903-1905. Returned to Minnesota. 
Wheelwright, S. A. Franklin, 1891-1893, Preston, 1894-1897. 
Whitton, Sam'l H. Wittemberg, 1867-1869. 



WHO'S WHO 413 

White, Frank N. (Lyons, 1858.) Michigan, 1881-1886, Japan, 1886- 

1893, Burlington, 1894-1898, Sioux City, 1900-1904, Union Park, 

Chicago, 1904. 
White, Geo. E. (Turkey, 1861.) Iowa Col., Waverly, 1887-1890, Miss'y 

in Turkey, 1890-. 
White, Geo. H. (Pennsylvania, 1830.) In Turkey, 1856-1863, Chester 

Center, 1872-1886, Grinnell residence, 1886-1910. Died, 1910. 
White, John. Missionary in Africa. Pastor in Connecticut. Ames, 

1865-1867, Wittemberg, 1869-1871. Died, 1872. 
White, John W. Illinois and Missouri. Clinton, Boonsboro, 1866- 

1874. 
White, Lorenzo J. (Vermont, 1828.) Lyons, 1857-1860. Later pas- 
torates Amboy, Illinois, St. Paul and Ripon. Died in London, Eng. 

and buried in Norwood Cemetery. 
White, Luther R. Born in Massachusetts. Le Claire, Glasgow, Brighton, 

1851-1858. Died at Brighton, May, 1858. 
Whitehead, J. M. Genoa Bluffs, 1904-1910. 
Whiting, Edwin P. (New York, 1830.) Bellevue, Durant, De Witt, 

1867-1877. Died at De Witt, June, 1877. 
Whiting, Lyman. (Massachusetts, 1817.) Dubuque, 1864-1869. Died, 

May, 1906. See Chapters VIII and XIII. 
Whitmore, Alfred A. (New York, 1817.) Wittemberg, Lewis, Anita, 

1871-1880. Died at Anita, August, 1886. 
Whitney, H. E. K. Hawarden, 1910-. 
Whittlesey, John S. Durant, 1856-1859. 
Whittlesey, Nathan H. (Connecticut, 1848.) Creston, 1875-1887, 

Evanston, Ills., 1887-1892. Secy. M. R. F., 1892-1900. Died, Wash- 
ington, D. C, February, 1901. 
Wiard, Hiram D. Sheldon, 1872-1875. Later Sem. course. Pastorates 

and evangelistic work in Illinois; field work C. H. M. S., Supt. Missions 

South Dakota and California. Fort Dodge, 1897-1901. 
Wickwire, Geo. A. Larchwood, Moville, 1902-1906. 
Wiggins, Aaron W. (Pennsylvania, 1850.) Farmington, 1897-1902, 

Miles, 1909-. 
Wilcox, Frank G. (Wisconsin, 1865.) Mason • City, Manson, Britt, 

Green Mountain, 1893-1901. 
Wilcox, John. Iowa Falls, 1857-1858. 
Wiley, Chas. W. (Ireland, 1847.) Humboldt, Burr Oak, Reinbeck, 

Rockwell, Green Mountain, 1876-1883. Later in South Dakota. 

Died, July, 1885. 
Wilkins, Harry J. (Born in England.) Fontanelle, Manson, Union, 

1899-1911, Keosauqua, 1911-. 



414 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Wilkinson, Reed. (Vermont, 1804.) Fairfield, 1856-1863, Vinton 

Asylum, 1864-1867, Toledo 1867-1870. Retired to Fairfield in 1870. 

Died, August, 1879. 
Willard, John. (Connecticut, 1826.) Connecticut and Massachusetts, 

1853-1883, Decorah, 1883-1891. Residence Chicago, 1891-. 
Willard, W. W. Anamosa, 1889-1889. Later in Illinois. 
Willett, Geo. Sioux City Mayflower, 1899-1902. 
Willett, Mahlon. (Canada, 1849.) Iowa Col. Pastorates in Illinois, 

Texas, California and Washington. Decorah, 1896-. 
Williams, Geo. C. English birth and education. Pastorate in Chicago. 

Keokuk, 1906-. 
Williams, John M. (New Hampshire, February, 1817.) Pastor First 

Church, Chicago; Fairfield, 1863-1866. Died, January, 1900. 
Williams, Joseph A. Des Moines Moriah, Avoca, 1896-1900. 
Williams, Lloyd. Pastorate in Pennsylvania, Givin, 1890-1892, Long 

Creek, 1892-1900. Givin, 1900-. 
Williams, L. S. (Vermont, 1796.) Pacific, 1864-1865. 
Williams, J. A. Chapin, Rock Rapids, 1898-1899. 
Williams, Richard J. (England, 1809.) Canada, Michigan, Wisconsin, 

etc. Bradford and Nashua, 1868-1870. Died in Nevada, November, 

1879. 
Williams, Mark W. (Michigan, 1864.) Wisconsin, Minnesota, North 

Dakota, South Dakota. Orchard, Stillwater, Niles, 1909. 
Williams, Wm. J. Peterson, 1902-1904. 
Williams, Wm. D. Popejoy, 1901-1902 
Willoughby, Albert S. (New York, 1853.) Iowa, 1887-1900, Moville, 

Big Rock, Webster, Nevinville, Creston, Pilgrim, Good Hope, Moorland, 

Wall Lake. 
Williston, Martin L. (Born in 1843.) Iowa pastorate Davenport, 1882- 

1888: Later in Illinois, Massachusetts and Connecticut. 
Wilson, Edward C. (England, 1873.) Little Rock, Milford, 1904-1908, 

Little Rock, 1910-. 
Wilson, Gilbert L. Genoa Bluffs, 1890-1892. 

Wilson, John W. Council Bluffs, 1897-1901. Returned to Wisconsin. 
Wilson, Wm. (Yorkshire, England, 1883.) Sioux City, Riverside, 1909. 
Winchell, R. Warren, 1853-1856. 
Windsor, John H. (England, 1827.) Iowa Col., Charles City, 1858-1860. 

Marion, 1860-1864, N. E., 1864-1883, Waterloo, 1883-1885, Illinois, 

1885-1892. Died, August, 1908. 
Windsor, John S. (England, 1802.) Durango, 1846-1848, Maquoketa, 

1849-1855, Cresco, 1856-1866, Keosauqua, 1866-1868, Cresco, 1868- 

1871. Keosauqua, 1871-1875. Died, December, 1881. 






WHO'S WHO 415 

Windsor, Wm. (England, 1830.) Iowa Col., Mitchell, 1858-1861, Daven- 
port, 1861-1866, Eddyville, 1866-1867, Illinois, 1867-1872, Marshall- 
town, 1874-1881, Illinois and California, 1889-1903. Died, Septem- 
ber, 1908. 

Winslow, Lyman W. (New York, 1840.) California, 1869-1872, Wis- 
consin, 1872-1881, 1882-1895 at Fayette, Earlville and Almoral and 
Cedar Rapids Bethany. Later in Wisconsin and California. 

Wingate, C. E. Casey, 1871-1874. 

Wirt, David. (Ohio, 1821.) Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Fort 
Dodge, 1869-1871, Genl. Miss'y, 1871-1872. Later in Wisconsin, 
Illinois, North Dakota, Oregon and Washington. Died, June, 1900. 

Wissler, Henry L. (Iowa, 1858.) Nevinville, 1887-1895, Exira, 1895-1900. 
Business, 1900-1903. Cincinnati, 1903- 1907, Chester Center, 1907-. 

Wolcott, Edgar E. Arion, 1906-1907, Sioux City Maj flower, 1907-1910. 

Wolcott, Wm. H. Allison, 1906-1908. 

Wolfe, A. J. (Virginia, 1864.) M. E. Minister, 12 years' course Oberlin 
Sem., Gilbert, 1909-. 

Wood, Alfred A. (Wisconisn, 1854.) M. E. and Congl. pastorates in 
Michigan, Ellsworth, 1904-1906. Returned to Wisconsin. 

Wood, Reuben R. (Vermont, 1819.) Clear Lake, Lakeside, Pioneer 
1883-1898. Died at Clear Lake, January, 1906. 

Woodbridge, Richard G. (London, 1854.) Iowa, 1882-1888, at Osage 
and Iowa City. Returned to N. E. 

Woodcock, Thos. J. Nora Springs, Lakeview, 1893-1896. 

Woodhull, Geo. L. Onawa, 1866-1870. Died in office. 

Woods, E. C. A. (New Hampshire, 1824.) Worked at Wapello part of 
year, 1853-1854. Died, November, 1854. 

Woods, J. V. A. Red Rock, Oskaloosa, 1851-1854. 

Woodward, Geo. H. Toledo, 1856-1867. Died at Toledo in 1877. 

Woodworth, Horace B. (Vermont, 1830.) Connecticut, 1862-1869, 
Charles City, 1869-1872, Decorah, 1872-1882. Prof. N. D. University, 
1885-1905, Emeritus, 1905-1906. Died, December, 1906. 

Woodworth, Wm. W. (Connecticut, 1813.) Connecticut, Massachusetts, 
Ohio, Grinnell, 1871-1875. Returned to Connecticut. Died, June, 1890. 

Worth, Frederick. (Germany, 1868.) Pastorates in Nebraska, Illinois, 
and Oregon. Avoca, 1909-. 

Wright, Alfred. (Massachusetts, 1803.) Anamosa, Quasqueton, Durango, 
1846-1865. Died, November, 1865. 

Wrihgt, Johnson. (New Ycrk, 1826.) Ohio, 1859-1866. Prof. Tabor 
Col., 1866-1877. Died, May, 1877. 

Wuerrschmidt, Christian W. (Germany, 1850.) South Dakota, 1885- 
1891, Sioux City, 1891-1895, Nebraska, 1895-1904. Died, 1907. 



416 THE PILGRIMS OF IOWA 

Wyatt, Chas. Pastorates, 1887-1903 at Silver Creek, Aurelia, Newtonville, 

Big Rock, lopejoy, Wall Lake and Moorland. Later in South Dakota 

and Washington. 
Wyatt, Frank O. (Rockford, Iowa, 1874.) Iowa Col., Chapin, 1898- 

1899. Later in Illinois and Washington, 
York, Fred E. (Canada, 1844.) M . E. and Congl. pastorates in Michigan, 

Eagle Grove, 1905-. 
York, Frank H. De Witt, 1888-1889. 
Youker, David G. (Canada, 1841.) Gowrie, Farnhamville, Manson, 

Center, Rockwell, 1875-1910. 
Young, Albert A. Monona, 1889-1892. Returned to Wisconsin. 
Zickefoose, F. A. (Wayne, Iowa, 1868.) West Burlington, Clay, Rock 

Rapids, Onawa, South Ottumwa, 1897-1910. 
Zumstein, Wm. C. New Hampton and Fort Atkinson, Treynor and 

Lansing Ridge, 1899-1905. 



INDEX 



Academies: Bradford, 232; Den- 
mark, 71, 76, 232; Hull, 232; Wil- 
ton, 232. 

Adams, Ephraim, 51, 59, 65, 87, 
120, 134, 186, 206, 289. Portrait, 
51. 

Adams, Harvey, 51, 59, 65, 87, 163, 
186, 215, 270, 305. Portrait, 51. 

Albany Convention, 105. 

Albany Fund, 107. 

Alden, E., 51, 59, 65, 87, 94, 183, 
186. Portrait, 51. 

Algona, 126, 135, 190. 

Allen, A. S., 202. Portrait, 126. 

Almoral, 132. 

American Board, 116, 280, 305. 

American Home Missionary Society, 
2, 32, 54, 56, 86, 89, 105, 107, 116, 
143, 225. 

American Missionary Association, 
86, 110, 124. 

Ames, 174, 277. Illustration 277. 

Anamosa, 80, 111, 167, 175. 

Appanoose, 17. 

Apthorp, William, 24, 94. 

Archibald, A. W., 213. 

Association, General, 41, 49, 58, 
73, 92, 113, 116, 128, 134, 139, 
145, 158, 165, 185, 253, 300. 

Atlantic, 182, 192. Illustration 277. 

Avery, William P., 133, 248. 



B. 



Beaman, A. M., 203. 

Bellevue, 15, 82. 

Bellevue War, 82. 

Belmond, 183. Illustration, 277. 

Bentley, Miss Belle L. Portrait, 233. 

Big Woods. See Anamosa. 

Bingham, J. S., 268. 



Blackhawk, 8, 10. 
Blackhawk Purchase, 10, 13. 
Blackhawk War, 9. 
Blizzards, 203. 

Bloomington, See Muscatine. 
Bohemian Churches, 237. 
BordweU, D. N., 189, 250. 
Bradford, 118, 146, 169, 179. 
Bradley, Dan F. Portrait, 120. 
Brainerd, Mrs. Julia D. Portrait, 

306. 
Bray, W. L., 213, 316. 
Breed, Mrs. D. P. Portrait 233. 
Brooks, W. M., 134, 181. Portrait, 

134. 
Brown, John, 131. 
Buck, S. J., 174, 316. 
Buckingham. See Traer. 
Burlington, 33, 56, 79, 88, 239. 



C. 



Cass, 123. 

Cedar Falls, 142. 

Central City, 138. 

Chamberlain, J. M., 271. 

Chapin, 133, 135. 

Charles City, 135, 189. 

Chester Center, 174. 

Churches Organized, 76, 80, 84, 94, 
104, 110, 112, 114, 132, 137, 142, 
148, 158, 163, 179, 189, 194, 210, 
234, 256. 

Church Buildings, 31, 75, 78, 111, 
114, 238. 

Civil Bend, 99, 164. 

Civil War, 145, 147, 152, 156, 159, 
171. 

Clark, Joseph S., 70, 77. 

Coleman, W. L., 82, 89, 131, 198, 
285. Portrait, 126. 

Collins, Miss Mary, 306. Por- 
trait, 86. 



417 



418 



INDEX 



Congregationalism — in Iowa, 41, 59, 

61, 295. 
Congregationalism — Western, 106. 
Congregational Church Building 

Society, 105, 302. 
"Congregational Iowa," 232. 
Congregational Renaissance, 3, 41, 

63. 
Congregational Sunday School and 

Publishing Society, 231. 
" Congregational Union," 107. 
Cooper, J. C, 110, 217. 
Cotton, Deacon Samuel, 182. 
Council Bluffs, 103, 109. 
Council Bluffs Association, 116. 
Cresco, 123, 152. 
Creston, 211. 
Cross, M. K., 285. 
Cross, John, 248. 
Cummings, J. M., 318. 



Danville, 37, 85, 240. 

Davenport, 22, 37, 87, 148, 181, 242. 

Davenport, Col. William, 17. 

Davenport Association, 95. 

Dean, B. A., 200. 

Decorah, 114, 134, 150, 175. 

Dedications, 141, 150, 166, 180, 183, 
189, 194, 212, 238, 258, 276. 

De Forest, Dr. Henry S. Portrait, 
86. 

Denmark, 23, 30, 57, 79, 81, 85, 167, 
185, 239, 293. 

Denmark Association, 58. 

Denney, Wilson, 241. 

Des Moines, 68, 89, 234. Illustra- 
tion, 277. 

Des Moines, Plymouth Church, 133, 
225, 278. 

Des Moines River Association, 93. 

"De Tocqueville," quoted, 12. 

"Donations," 166, 174. 

Douglass, H. P. Portrait, 86. 

Douglass, T. O., 188, 227, 280. Por- 
trait, 227. 

Douglass, Mrs. T. O. Portrait, 
233 

Dubuque, 13, 18, 48, 78, 86, 240. 

Dubuque Association, 95. 

Dunlap, 139. 

Durango, 90. 



E. 



Earlville, 139. 

Eddyville, 76, 100, 111, 175. 

Edson, Mrs. H. K. Portrait, 233. 

Edson, H. K., 288. 

Ellis, Geo. N., Portrait, 134. 

Emerson, Oliver, 44, 63, 85, 186, 

244, 296. Portrait, 28. 
Emigrations from Iowa, 109, 228, 

274. 
Emmetsburg, 198. 
Exira, 139. 



Fairfield, 38, 112, 146, 241. 

Farmington, 21, 39, 87. 

Fath, Jacob, 319. 

Fawkes, Francis, 317. Portrait, 

317. 
Fellowship, 299, 324. 
Ferner, J. W., 319. 
Ficke, Herman, 188. 
Flag of 49th Iowa Regiment, 165. 
Fleury, Peter, 83, 89. 
Fort Dodge, 122. 
Fort Madison, 21, 25. 
French Claims, 5. 
Frisbie, A. L., 214. Portrait, 227. 
Frisbie, Mrs. A. L. Portrait, 306. 



G. 



Garnavillo, 64, 87. # 

Garnavillo Association, 131. 

Gates, G. A. Portrait, 120. 

Gaylord, Reuben, 34, 38, 85, 120, 
244. Portrait, 28. 

General Missionaries, 233, 255, 276. 

German Work in Iowa, 83, 89, 94, 
132, 233, 236. 

Gilman, 316. 

Gist, W. W., 242. 

Gordon, John. Portrait, 134. 

Grasshoppers, 207. 

Green Mountain, 133. 

Griffith, Lieutenant Joseph E., 160. 

Grimes, Governor J. W., 135, 158. 

Grinnell, 119, 128, 228. Illustra- 
tion, 277. 

Grinnell Association, 131. 



INDEX 



419 



Grinnell, Josiah B., 114, 128, 266. 
Guernsey, Jesse, 113, 134, 138, 151, 
182, 204. Portrait, 113. 

H. 

Hampton, 133. 

Hand, L. S., 213, 319. 

Hanson, J. H. Portrait, 317. 

Hard Times, 135, 138, 149. 

Harden, Mrs. J. F. Portrait, 306. 

Harvey, W. L., 187, 250. 

Haystack Settlement. See Den- 
mark. 

Herrick, S. L., 249. 

Hess, Carl V., 90, 128. 

Hill, E. S., 182, 186, 192. Portrait, 
99 

Hill,' J. J., 51, 64, 76, 84, 87, 108, 
217. Portrait, 51. 

Hitchcock, George B., 89, 100, 218. 

Holbrook, J. C, 13, 38, 45, 47, 69, 
113, 128, 168, 186, 240, 285. Por- 
trait, 28. 

Home Missions, 149, 225, 254, 295, 
298. 

Home Missionary Offerings, 226, 
233, 255, 311. 

Home Missionary Superintendents: 
Asa Turner, 32, 54, 81; J. A. Reed, 
77, 100; Jesse Guernsey, 134, 205; 
E. Adams, 206; T. O. Douglass, 
227, 283; P. A. Johnson, 283. 

Hughes, R. C. Portrait, 134. 

Hurlbut, Joseph, 150, 178, 219. 

Hutchinson, Horace, 51, 59, 65, 74, 
77. Illustration, 51. 



I. 



Illinois Band, 3. 

Indians, 11, 16, 26, 53, 66. 

Indian Deputation, 16. 

Infidelity, 72, 76, 304. 

Iowa: Territorial Names, 7; Explo- 
rations, 8; Admitted to Union, 83; 
Settlement of state, 292. 

"Iowa Band," 51, 56, 190, 253. 

Iowa Church Building Fund, 105, 
130. 

Iowa City, 125, 180. 

Iowa College, 71, 84, 92, 95, 113, 
130, 140, 159, 162, 166, 228, 262. 



Iowa Congregational Home Mis- 
sionary Society, 227, 254, 283. 
Iowa Falls, 122. 



J. 



Johnson, P. A. Portrait, 227. 
Jones, Darius E., 247. 

K. 

Kansas Troubles, 130. 
Keith, William, 89, 94, 115. 
Kelsey, Mrs. Mary S. Portrait, 

306. 
Kent, Aratus, 14, 195. 
Keokuk (Indian Chief), 10, 11, 16. 
Keokuk Church, 114, 225. 
Keosauqua, 65, 87. 
Kimball, E. P., 124, 315. 
"Kingdom Movement," 263. 
Kinzer, A. D., 213, 320. 
Kneeland, Abner, 65, 72, 304. 
Knowles, David, 161. 



L. 



La Due, S. P., 131. 

Lane, Daniel, 51, 59, 65, 87, 186, 
265. Portrait, 51. 

Lavender, R. F., 241. 

Legislature, First Iowa described, 
83 

Lewis, G. H. Portrait, 227. 

Lewis and Clark Expedition, 8. 

"Little Brown Church," 117. Illus- 
tration, 117. 

Littlefield, Ozias, 118, 247. 

Long, F. W. Portrait, 134. 

Louisiana Purchase, 7. 

Lyons, 38, 241. 

M. 

McGregor, 121, 132, 141. 

Magnolia, 119. 

Magoun, F., 248. 

Magoun, President, George F., 120, 
148, 168, 269. Portrait, 120. 

Magoun, Mrs. Elizabeth E. Por- 
trait, 306. 

Main, J. H. T., Portrait, 120. 

Manchester, 123, 167. 



420 



INDEX 



Maquoketa, 62, 66, 112, 262. 

Marion, 95, 111, 154, 175. 

Marsh, Miss Ella. Portrait, 233. 

Marshall, C. A., 288. 

Mason, J. D., 187. Portrait, 126. 

Mason City, 136. 

Merrill, Annie D., 227. Portrait, 227. 

Merrill, J. H. Portrait, 227. 

Merrill, O. W., 218. 

Millikan, S. F., 317. 

Ministry, Value of, 322. 

Ministerial Relief Fund, 158, 301, 

303. 
Missionary Campaigns, 279. 
Missouri Slope, 98. 
Mitchell, 131. 
Mitchell Association, 131. 
Mormons, 98, 102. 
Mormon Trail, 101. 
Moulton, E. C, 214. 
Mt. Pleasant, 43, 65, 164. 
Muscatine, 65, 88, 259. 



N. 



National Council, 280, 301. 
Navigation of Iowa Rivers, 42, 141. 
Nevinville, 137. 
New England — Prejudice against, 

24, 36. 
New Hampton, 136. 
New Purchase, 52. 
"News Letter, Iowa," 159, 287. 
Newton, 124. 

Nichoson, Mrs. M. J. Portrait, 233. 
Noble, Charles, 242. 
Northern Iowa Association, 50. 
Northwestern Association, 140. 
Northwestern Iowa Settled, 197. 
Northwest Territory, 2. 
Nutting, J. K., 128. Portrait, 117. 



O. 



"Oberlin Rescuers," 139. 

Onawa, 137. 

Orvis, G. M., 241, 258. 

Osage, 136, 141, 157. Illustration, 
141. 

Osage Pastors and Wives. Illustra- 
tion, 157. 

Oskaloosa, 94. 

Ottumwa, 66, 80, 88, 104, 154, 262. 



P. 



Parker, Alexander, 249. 

Parker, L. F., 316. 

Parker, Mrs. Nellie Clarke. Por- 
trait, 306. 

Parker, Mrs. L. F., 285. 

Parker, Mrs. Sarah Candace. Por- 
trait, 306. 

Parsonages, 181. 

Pastoral Support, 322. 

Pastorates, long, 323. 

Patriotic Resolutions, 145, 158, 162, 
165. 

Pauliu, Anton. Portrait, 317. 

"Pet Bear" (a Desperado), con- 
verted, 91. 

Pickett, Joseph, 164, 192, 221. Por- 
trait, 113. 

Pike, Zebulon, 8. 

Pilgrims, The, 1. 

Pioneer Conditions, 20, 22, 24, 32, 
49, 67, 201, 296. 

Place Seeking and Place Making, 
323 

Polk City, 137. 

Political Movements, 135. 

Population of Iowa, 67, 253, 292. 

Porter, H. W. Portrait, 86. 

Potter, Mrs. E. R. Portrait, 306. 

Potwin, Miss Grace. Portrait, 306. 

Powesheik, 17. 

Prairies, considered worthless, 101, 
142, 176. 

Presbyterians: Plan of Union with, 
64; Comity Efforts, 107; With- 
drawal, 143. 

Presbyterian churches Congrega- 
tionalized, 60, 61, 95, 136, 175, 
180. 

Prospectors, 13. 

Prosperity, 141, 173. 

Prohibitory Amendment, 230. 

Puritan Stream from the South, 292. 



R. 



Railroads, 111, 113, 177, 194, 224. 
Reed, Julius A., 21, 26, 40, 41, 77, 

100, 133, 191, 238, 266. Portrait, 

28. 
Revivals and Ingatherings, 76, 86, 

103, 257, 276. 



INDEX 



421 



Rew, Mrs. Clara Whipple. Por- 
trait, 306. 

Rice, G. G., 103, 109. Portrait, 
99. 

Riceville, 136. 

Ripley, Erastus, 51, 59, 64, 88, 216. 
Portrait, 51. 

Robbins, A. B., 51, 59, 66, 88, 164, 
186, 270. Portrait, 51. 

Robbins, Mrs. A. B., 92, 267. 

Robbins, Mrs. H. H., 233. Portrait, 
223. 

Roberts, Bennet, 95, 246. 

Rockford, 131, 146. 

Rogers, Deacon Jesse, 268. 



S. 



Salaries of Missionaries, 32, 81, 204, 
295 

Salem', 112, 153. 

Salter, William, 51, 59, 66, 78, 88, 
167, 186, 294, 313. Portrait, 51. 

Salter, Mrs. William, 267. 

Sands, J. D., 192, 210,. 238. Por- 
trait, 103. 

Self Support (of local churches), 81, 
86, 175, 181, 194, 212, 225. 

Self Support, (state), 227. 

Semi-Centennials, 238, 261, 282. 

Sickly Season, 74, 77. 

Sioux Association, 201. 

Sioux City, 133. 

Skiles, J. H., 241. 

Slavery: Pro-slavery sentiments, 
155, 292; Anti-slavery resolu- 
tions, 92, 116, 129, 134, 145. 

Sloan, S. D., 216. 

Sloughs, 198, 202. 

Smith, Joseph, 73. 

Smith, E. P., 115. 

Smith, W. J., 136, 162, 202. 

Smith, O.O. Portrait, 231. 

Snowden, J. E., 213. Portrait, 227. 

"Sodom and Gomorrah," 87. 

Spanish Claims to Iowa, 5, 6. 

Spaulding, Benjamin. Portrait, 51. 

Spaulding, A. B., 51, 59, 66, 88,154, 
185. 

Spencer, 198. 

Squatter Claims, 23, 33. 

Stacyville, 131, 141. 

Stage Coach Travel, 97. 



Stevenson, J. O., 318. 

Stuart, Robert, 247. 

Sturtevant, J. M., 227, 232, 243. 
Portrait, 227. 

Sunday Schools — State Superintend- 
ent of, 231. 

Scandinavian Churches, 237. 



Tabor, 110, 118, 130. 

Tabor College, 134, 181. 

Taylor, Chauncey, 126, 127, 184, 
197, 209, 220. Portrait, 126. 

Tenney, Thomas, 136, 219. 

Thaintsgiving Day, 73. 

Thatcher, Dr. George, 221. 

Thrush, J. O. Portrait, 103. 

Todd, John, 99, 102, 110, 130. Por- 
trait, 99. 

Toledo, 114, 152, 183. 

Tornado at Grinnell, 228. 

Towle, C. A., 272. Portrait, 231. 

Towle, Mrs. EUa R. Portrait, 306. 

Traer (also Buckingham), 123, 183. 

"Treason," 173, 185. 

Turner, Asa, 19, 21, 28, 54, 81, 84, 
185, 245. Portrait, 28. 

Turner, E. B., 51, 59, 68, 89, 186. 
Portrait, 51. 

Tuttle, H. W. Portrait, 231. 



U. 



Upton, J. R., 103, 198. Portrait, 
103. 



V. 



Vincent, Deacon W. K., 38. 
Vittum, E. M., 260. Portrait, 233. 

W. 

Wapello, 17. 

Watson, Cyrus L., 17, 20. 

Waterloo, 124. 

Wayne, 115. 

Webster City, 120, 167. 

Welles, Clayton. Portrait, 227. 

Welsh Churches, 125, 236. 

White, George E., 243. 



422 



INDEX 



White, G. H., 213, 315. 


Woodworth, Dr. F. G. Portrait, 86. 


Whiting, Lyman, 168, 287. 


Wright, Alfred, 80, 89, 175. 


Wilcox, Mrs. W. C. Portrait, 306. 




Williamsburg, 124. 


Y. 


Windsor, J. W., 90, 94, 112. 




Windsor, William, 113. 


Youker, D. G., 213, 318. Portrait, 


W. B. M. I., 306. 


317. 


W. H. M. U., 233. 


Y. P. S. C. E., 231. 



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